Organ donation

Hello everyone. My name’s Usman Khalid. I’m a transplant and organ retrieval surgeon working in Cardville University Health Board. I’m a Muslim and I’m of Pakistani heritage.

Organ donation and transplantation is a very dear topic to me. There’s over 6,000 patients on the transplant waiting list, and approximately one third of those are from what can be described as black and minority ethnic background. And a significant proportion of those are Muslims.

Unfortunately only 8% of the deceased donors are from the same background, and therefore there’s a major gap, if you like, of organ donor shortage within our community, being a Muslim and a transplant and organ retrieval surgeon.

This is, this is an issue that is very dear to me personally and I’ve had multiple discussions with many people and I think the main issues within our community is that there is a general lack of knowledge about permissibility of organ donation and transplantation. And also a degree of mistrust with the healthcare authorities.

I think the only way to overcome that really is to kind of do our own research look into the topic ourselves, um, openly have that discussion with our imams and with the OMA and the Sheikhs.

There’s lots of forums out there. So the information is available for all of us to do our research and have that discussion then with our family and make a decision and communicate that decision with our family so that
when the time comes and if the opportunity arises for organisation to happen, then at least our families are best equipped to help the healthcare authorities in that situation.

Talking about organ donation with my family was tricky. I decided that I wanted to register as an organ donor, but sharing this decision was met with confusion and disagreement by my family. For them, organ donation is associated with negative stories of trafficking and organ harvesting. It was a tough conversation, but I explained that organ donation is about saving lives and that there is a shortage of organs for people of black ethnicity. I think we need to raise awareness and breakdown the myths and fears associated with organ donation.

I know that organ donation can save lives, and I want to make sure that if I was in a position to donate, that this would be respected. I want my family to understand and respect my decision, so that if I am in a position to donate, they will support this. We talked through the facts about organ donation, what it would involve, and why I want to donate to help others. They understand it is my decision.

Becoming an organ donor was an important decision for me. I wasn’t sure about organ donation to start with. I thought very carefully about whether organ donation is consistent with my beliefs. Initially I was uncertain about whether organ donation was compatible with my faith. But for me now, I believe that saving lives is a core principle in Islam, and that organ donation aligns with this. I feel very strongly that I want to help others, particularly because there is a shortage of organ for people in my community. I want my family to understand the significance of my decision. I would be upset if they did not support this decision – I see it as their role to do so.

When [relative] died, we were approached about organ donation. We found out that [relative] had never recorded a decision about organ donation and that they were therefore presumed to consent to organ donation. We are Muslim’s and we weren’t sure about whether our faiths support organ donation. We talked with the NHS staff, and they were very helpful and supportive. Our faith was very respected, and our faith leader was included in discussions about organ donation. The teams ensured that our faith rituals around death were honoured. We are very glad that [relative] was able to donate; we now feel that the legacy of our [relative] is in the lives he saved through organ donation.