abdulhakeem
26-12-03, 01:14 PM
Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec 23 (IPS) - Pale, in fact more on the sallow side, six-month old Sohaib opens his eyes, stretches a little and looks at all those gathered around his cot at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation's (SIUT) intensive care unit in this southern Pakistani city. Their faces are hidden by green theatre masks, but Sohaib, who hails from Rawlakot in Azad Kashmir or Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, gives a faint smile as his eyes fall on his mother.
He is oblivious to the fact that he has made history - as the first recipient in Pakistan of a liver transplant - and that he would have died within months if he had not come to Karachi or to SIUT. ”He was this yellow,” Anwar Naqvi, a senior doctor at the institute, says, pointing to the bright yellow balloons hanging in his cubicle.
The seven-hour operation was carried out early this month by the SIUT team headed by its director, Adibul Hasan Rizvi, with a team of surgeons from King's College, London. The transplanted liver is doing fine and gaining its required size.
Sohaib's maternal uncle Wasim Khan, a 21-year-old lanky frail fellow in the construction business, donated part of his liver. ”I feel proud, not because everyone considers it a feat that I have accomplished, but because God chose me to save Sohaib's life. That is my reward,” he says.
In a country where people hesitate to give even blood to save lives of their near and dear ones, his is indeed a feat. Saima, who is Sohaib's mother and Wasim's younger sister, is overwhelmed. ”The night before the operation was the longest, most grueling night I've spent. I wanted my son to be normal and healthy again, but I couldn't help worry about my brother, '' she says.
''What if anything went wrong? How would I ever face my parents? My faith in God has strengthened,” says Saima, who has six brothers, all of whom had offered their liver for transplant.
Sohaib's family has not been asked to pay a single rupee to the institute.With humble beginnings as a department of urology at the government-run Civil Hospital here in 1970, this public sector state-of-the-art health facility today provides free, comprehensive medical care in kidney diseases and transplants.
But in making history, Sohaib has also re-opened a Pandora's box around the acceptance by the public - and by religious leaders who hold clout in this South Asian country - of the donation of organs from cadavers. This almost 10-year old debate -- which has been lying dormant pending legislative approval -- has been given a new lease of life, just like Sohaib.
”Things seem to be looking up. We have the blessings of the Prime Minister Jamali. His son went through a liver transplant some five years ago at King's Hospital in London and so this time when the team was here, he came to meet them at our institute and the issue was raised and he promised to get it done, says Dr Naqvi, senior urologist at the SIUT. ''He understands the importance of organ donations.”
On average, 25,000 Pakistanis die every year of organ failure. There is an estimated need of 5,500 livers per population per year. ”Despite the technical advances, donor organ shortage persists in the absence of a cadaver organ donation and transplantation law,” says Dr Rizvi.
End-stage organ failure leads annually to some 10,000 patients requiring renal replacement and 3,000 a new heart.
Eye donations are allowed at present, but are far from enough. Whether it is public apathy, indifference or an ill-informed nation, statistics show that not more than 150 corneas have been donated by Pakistanis during last 50 years against the backdrop of 1.5 million blind people in the country and a blindness rate growing at a rate of half percent.
According to Eye Bank Society sources, some 1,500 corneas have been procured from Sri Lanka for more than 30 years. Though 30,000 consent cards have been signed in Karachi alone in the last 20 years, very few donations actually came forward. Naqvi says almost all Muslim countries have accepted organ donations, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia and Bangladesh, so he wonders why the same cannot be done in Pakistan.
Those like Fouzia Mapara, who works in a multinational company, has no problem with donating her organs after death ”as long as everything is legal and utilised correctly for Pakistani human beings and not exported like everything else -- our meat and tomatoes and fruit''.
Zubeida Mustafa, a senior journalist who does not find organ donation un-Islamic, puts the blame partly on apathy and partly ”the fear that the mullahs will attack any such move”. Ayesha Azfar agrees, but says that ”if done cleverly - quoting Saudi Arabia's example extensively, there could be a few murmurs that might abate''.
But M Saleem Dada, who teaches 'Islamiyat', argues: ”If some Muslim countries have made the law in their favour, that is no reason to consider it an Islamic decision nor (does) the fatwa (Islamic decree)of Al-Azhar University matter for the same reason”.
”To change the shape of a body is a satanic attitude,'' he adds. ''Allah has created human beings with great art and perfection and to add or subtract anything from a person is against this setting. Little wonder then that organs donated are always rejected where they are put, and heavy and very expensive medicine is needed to control their work.”
Mohammad Ali Naqvi, a Shia scholar, also believes that ”cadaver organ donation or that of a living person is un-Islamic”. While donating blood is equivalent to godliness, ”and it does not require any surgical procedure, organ transplantation for research or for saving lives is not allowed in Islam,'' he argues.
Bur Rizvi counters: ”Giving life to people could never be un-Islamic. When it comes to life and death, something that is not permissible in Islam becomes permissible. That is Islam.” Niilofur Farrukh, art critic and activist, says: ”Cadaver organ donation is the ultimate gesture of generosity a human being can make for the other. It is a 'sadqa-e- jaria' (continuous and on-going alms giving). Enlightened religious leaders should endorse this to address religious concerns.''
Like Azfar, Nuzhat Lotia cannot fathom why ”if eyes can be donated after death, what holds people back from donating other organs? ”Blood is also defined as an organ and it's donated all the time,” joins in Beena Sarwar, a journalist and human rights activist.
For far too long, SIUT has been talking of donor cards but even that scheme has never really taken root. ”That is because no one carries that on them. We have suggested that the new driving licenses can have a line that says that the victim has allowed donation of his organ in case of his sudden death due to accident,” explains SIUT's Naqvi. So far nothing like that has materialised.
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=21683
KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec 23 (IPS) - Pale, in fact more on the sallow side, six-month old Sohaib opens his eyes, stretches a little and looks at all those gathered around his cot at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation's (SIUT) intensive care unit in this southern Pakistani city. Their faces are hidden by green theatre masks, but Sohaib, who hails from Rawlakot in Azad Kashmir or Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, gives a faint smile as his eyes fall on his mother.
He is oblivious to the fact that he has made history - as the first recipient in Pakistan of a liver transplant - and that he would have died within months if he had not come to Karachi or to SIUT. ”He was this yellow,” Anwar Naqvi, a senior doctor at the institute, says, pointing to the bright yellow balloons hanging in his cubicle.
The seven-hour operation was carried out early this month by the SIUT team headed by its director, Adibul Hasan Rizvi, with a team of surgeons from King's College, London. The transplanted liver is doing fine and gaining its required size.
Sohaib's maternal uncle Wasim Khan, a 21-year-old lanky frail fellow in the construction business, donated part of his liver. ”I feel proud, not because everyone considers it a feat that I have accomplished, but because God chose me to save Sohaib's life. That is my reward,” he says.
In a country where people hesitate to give even blood to save lives of their near and dear ones, his is indeed a feat. Saima, who is Sohaib's mother and Wasim's younger sister, is overwhelmed. ”The night before the operation was the longest, most grueling night I've spent. I wanted my son to be normal and healthy again, but I couldn't help worry about my brother, '' she says.
''What if anything went wrong? How would I ever face my parents? My faith in God has strengthened,” says Saima, who has six brothers, all of whom had offered their liver for transplant.
Sohaib's family has not been asked to pay a single rupee to the institute.With humble beginnings as a department of urology at the government-run Civil Hospital here in 1970, this public sector state-of-the-art health facility today provides free, comprehensive medical care in kidney diseases and transplants.
But in making history, Sohaib has also re-opened a Pandora's box around the acceptance by the public - and by religious leaders who hold clout in this South Asian country - of the donation of organs from cadavers. This almost 10-year old debate -- which has been lying dormant pending legislative approval -- has been given a new lease of life, just like Sohaib.
”Things seem to be looking up. We have the blessings of the Prime Minister Jamali. His son went through a liver transplant some five years ago at King's Hospital in London and so this time when the team was here, he came to meet them at our institute and the issue was raised and he promised to get it done, says Dr Naqvi, senior urologist at the SIUT. ''He understands the importance of organ donations.”
On average, 25,000 Pakistanis die every year of organ failure. There is an estimated need of 5,500 livers per population per year. ”Despite the technical advances, donor organ shortage persists in the absence of a cadaver organ donation and transplantation law,” says Dr Rizvi.
End-stage organ failure leads annually to some 10,000 patients requiring renal replacement and 3,000 a new heart.
Eye donations are allowed at present, but are far from enough. Whether it is public apathy, indifference or an ill-informed nation, statistics show that not more than 150 corneas have been donated by Pakistanis during last 50 years against the backdrop of 1.5 million blind people in the country and a blindness rate growing at a rate of half percent.
According to Eye Bank Society sources, some 1,500 corneas have been procured from Sri Lanka for more than 30 years. Though 30,000 consent cards have been signed in Karachi alone in the last 20 years, very few donations actually came forward. Naqvi says almost all Muslim countries have accepted organ donations, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia and Bangladesh, so he wonders why the same cannot be done in Pakistan.
Those like Fouzia Mapara, who works in a multinational company, has no problem with donating her organs after death ”as long as everything is legal and utilised correctly for Pakistani human beings and not exported like everything else -- our meat and tomatoes and fruit''.
Zubeida Mustafa, a senior journalist who does not find organ donation un-Islamic, puts the blame partly on apathy and partly ”the fear that the mullahs will attack any such move”. Ayesha Azfar agrees, but says that ”if done cleverly - quoting Saudi Arabia's example extensively, there could be a few murmurs that might abate''.
But M Saleem Dada, who teaches 'Islamiyat', argues: ”If some Muslim countries have made the law in their favour, that is no reason to consider it an Islamic decision nor (does) the fatwa (Islamic decree)of Al-Azhar University matter for the same reason”.
”To change the shape of a body is a satanic attitude,'' he adds. ''Allah has created human beings with great art and perfection and to add or subtract anything from a person is against this setting. Little wonder then that organs donated are always rejected where they are put, and heavy and very expensive medicine is needed to control their work.”
Mohammad Ali Naqvi, a Shia scholar, also believes that ”cadaver organ donation or that of a living person is un-Islamic”. While donating blood is equivalent to godliness, ”and it does not require any surgical procedure, organ transplantation for research or for saving lives is not allowed in Islam,'' he argues.
Bur Rizvi counters: ”Giving life to people could never be un-Islamic. When it comes to life and death, something that is not permissible in Islam becomes permissible. That is Islam.” Niilofur Farrukh, art critic and activist, says: ”Cadaver organ donation is the ultimate gesture of generosity a human being can make for the other. It is a 'sadqa-e- jaria' (continuous and on-going alms giving). Enlightened religious leaders should endorse this to address religious concerns.''
Like Azfar, Nuzhat Lotia cannot fathom why ”if eyes can be donated after death, what holds people back from donating other organs? ”Blood is also defined as an organ and it's donated all the time,” joins in Beena Sarwar, a journalist and human rights activist.
For far too long, SIUT has been talking of donor cards but even that scheme has never really taken root. ”That is because no one carries that on them. We have suggested that the new driving licenses can have a line that says that the victim has allowed donation of his organ in case of his sudden death due to accident,” explains SIUT's Naqvi. So far nothing like that has materialised.
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=21683