The country needs laboratory where organs of cadaveric or posthumous donation can be preserved. “We badly need a cadaveric lab to preserve the organs, posthumous donated organs,” President of the Society of Organ Transplant Bangladesh Prof Dr Harun-Ur-Rashid told.
“Preservation of these organs are very important as a person can save lives of five others simultaneously by donating organs after death — one’s two kidneys could offer life to two people and his liver, lung and heart can save three others,” he added.
Rashid said in modern countries about 80 – 90 percent people get new lives through cadaveric organ donations but “in Bangladesh it is yet to start and the lab is crucial for it”.
Vice-Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Prof Dr Kamrul Hasan said, “There is a huge gap between the demand for organs and the supply where demand drastically outstrips the number of organ donors, while a lab is very important to minimize the gap.”
He said a cadaver laboratory could be established at the extended areas of the University where the collected organs would be preserved for a long span of time.
The experts also stressed to create awareness about the donation.
But many also feared that the emotion, values and religious debates too could appear as bigger challenges for the organ donation campaign in Bangladesh.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), however, endorsed the campaign as the basic principles of Islam always upheld humanitarian causes.
As approached for comments on cadaveric donation Islamic scholar Maulana Abdullah Al-Maruf referred to the decision of the OIC’s Islamic Council which ruled that one can donate his or her organs before or after death for the welfare of human being.
“A man, however, cannot sale his organs according to Islamic principles but he can donate . . . this is because human organs are highly precious in the eyes of Islam and they cannot be regarded as commercially tradable objects,” he said.
