Parliament committed to eradicate menace of organ trade – Dr. Fehmida Mirza

Home/Journal/2012/April 2012/Parliament committed to eradicate menace of organ trade – Dr. Fehmida Mirza

Parliament committed to eradicate menace of organ trade – Dr. Fehmida Mirza

 Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 2010 is reflective of the parliament’s commitment to eradicate the menace of illicit and immoral organ trade from the country, said Dr. Fehmida Mirza, Speaker of the National Assembly at a Ceremony organized by Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation (SIUT) to commemorate World Organ Donors Day recently inKarachi.

 She also appreciated the fact thatFederal Shariat Courthas also endorsed the much warranted law that has put effective checks on the heinous organ trade. He further said that on one hand the law channelizes the entire procedure by restricting the living donations to only the blood donations while on the other hand it has also suggested severe punitive actions against any possible violations. It is equally satisfying to note that these measures were further endorsed by theFederal Shariat Courtwhen the appeal to change the law was denied by declaring organ sale to be against the dignity of Islam.

 She said that consequent to the passage of the law the onus of responsibility for creating an affordable and readily available treatment mechanism rests with all concerned stakeholders of the State. She recommended an effective public-private partnership and a missionary zeal in each individual to provide a chance to life for every patient suffering from failure of one or the other organ.

 Earlier, Prof Adib-ul-Hasan Rizvi, Director, SIUT said the problems faced by the country vis-à-vis cadaver organ donation were three pronged and these also included lack of will among many of the members of medical community. Besides poor infrastructure that required investment in the emergency and accident victims care centres many of the doctors too are little interested to play their role in sensitizing relatives of the brain dead about the relevance of organ donation. Society itself has a role to play in promoting the culture that is efficiently practiced in more than 17 Muslim countries includingIran,Saudi Arabia, UAE,Malaysia,Bangladeshand many others.

 The Ceremony was also addressed by Anwar- ul- Haq, father of the first cadaver organ donor Naveed, wife of Prof. Razzak Memon, first medical professional of the country whose organs were retrieved as per his will and Qurat-ul-Ain, mother of Arsalan, a 15- year- old student from Lahore who emerged to be the first cadaver liver donor and whose liver was transplanted to others in need at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore.

 Prof Sadqa Aftab, head of anesthesiology department,CivilHospital,Karachi, Prof, Rana Majid (Nephrologist), Prof. Junaid Ashraf (Neurologist) also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, Dr. Fehmida Mirza also launched the National Deceased Organ Programme of Transplantation by signing the Pledge Card to donate her organs, after brain death.

2017-04-26T12:35:17+00:00