Make organ donation easier
WOULD you, or wouldn’t you, decide to donate your organs? Why, or why not? Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya told Parliament on March 21 that only 1% of Malaysians – 381,353 people – were registered as donors.
Earlier in October, Negri Sembilan health director Dr Abdul Rahim Abdullah said the racial breakdown of registered donors was as follows – Chinese Malaysians made up 42%, Malays 29.02%, Indians 23.24%, with others making up 5.46%.
Thus, the question that should be given some consideration before we begin talking about organ donations. Is it due to some ingrained belief that we need to be buried with our bodies intact?
For those using religion as the basis for such an excuse – particularly Islam – our established religious institutions have approved a fatwa allowing organ donations since 1970 after an entire decade of discussions.
Ironically, you can register as a donor online, and get your donor card in the mail – as opposed to, you know, registering as a voter, or even applying for an IC.
The reason I bring up this topic is due to a disturbing note in both news reports. In the October report, the number of those waiting for an organ was said to be “more than 20,000” people. However, Dr Hilmi told Parliament that there are 31,084 patients nationwide waiting for kidneys.
This seems odd. With 381,353 registered donors, why is there such a large number of patients still waiting for a kidney? Wouldn’t there be registered donors called up by the hospitals to be asked in for tests, determining whether their organs are suitable?
Of course, we would first need to be educated on whether or not a human can function normally with a single kidney – the answer is of course, yes. Though, I leave it up to doctors to explain it in detail.
It then dawned on me that the organ donation registration was only applicable for harvesting in the case of death, as well as not allowing people who are alive to donate to people who aren’t relatives.
This is explained on the Transplant Unit website, which explains that living donations were only applicable for first degree and second degree relatives.
At this point, perhaps the Ministry of Health can consider calling up live donors who don’t come within the first and second degree relative requirement?
After all, perhaps it is time to consider other Malaysians as part and parcel of the human race who deserve an organ to live, rather than just limit it to our relatives. If anything, it’ll perhaps instil some form of cohesion among Malaysians, to know that someone has their back if their organs start failing.
Removing that one barrier would allow the 381,353 registered organ donors to be contacted for consideration to enable 31,084 Malaysians live healthy full lives again. Another indirect effect of such selflessness is of course the chance that we are promoting national unity.
Of course, the biggest problem in getting more Malaysians to register as organ donors is communication.
The one thing needed to get organ donations into the spotlight is, of course, to get the message out to the public in the most efficient way possible – with a target towards those who actually care about their health. What better way than to team up with anyone who still sends physical mail to houses, particularly insurance agencies?
While David Halpern’s “Nudge Unit” in the UK moved towards promoting organ donations through simple messages with hyperlinks placed in emailed utility bills and such, similar steps can be taken by the Ministry of Health teaming up with the likes of the Inland Revenue Board or even the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN).
Of course, this tactic would work better if people didn’t have to open snail mail and then type in a web address, compared to just opening an email and clicking a hyperlink – but that is our limitation for now.
There is a need here to explain why organ donation is important – it saves lives of thousands and betters the lives of tens of thousands at no added cost, and if your organs are harvested after death, it does so to the benefit of bettering the lives of others which is otherwise wasted.
And as a registered donor since 2007, I did so cynically thinking that when I die, I will be a lighter load to be buried by my relatives.