For those faced with precarious health conditions, modern medical marvels can provide hope and lifelines. In cases where poor health progresses to end-stage organ failure, organ transplants can offer patients a renewed chance at life.
However, only 10 percent of the global demand for organ transplants is currently being met, according to the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation. Across the Middle East and North Africa region, patients are silently battling the challenges of end-stage organ failure.
Successful organ donation can transform the lives of people with severe, life-threatening illnesses, giving them the chance to enjoy restored health. Remarkably, a single deceased donor can save up to eight lives and help as many as 75 people recover from burns and severe injuries through donated tissues. Although recipients still require treatment and lifelong medication, most are able to return to an almost normal life.
Organ donation works in two ways. Living donors may elect to donate a single kidney or a portion of their liver while still alive. Donors can also agree to donate a number of life-saving organs, including heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and pancreas, after death.
Despite medical breakthroughs, the MENA region faces a critical shortage of organ donations. To chart a successful course forward, several pivotal actions should be considered. A holistic and comprehensive policy must be formulated to build robust organ donation and transplantation systems, matching patients with donors through clear pathways. To begin, big data is needed to understand the demand across various age groups and geographies, in addition to monitoring donor registries, waiting lists and yearly outcomes. By gathering this data, there will be a clear call to action for stakeholders to work on.
Fundamentally, preventive action is needed to reduce the number of patients facing end-stage organ failure, namely through reducing the rate of noncommunicable diseases. Now considered the leading cause of death worldwide, noncommunicable diseases claimed the lives of 43 million people in 2021 and accounted for 75 percent of non-pandemic-related deaths. According to the World Bank, 78.5 percent of deaths in 2019 in the MENA region were attributed to noncommunicable diseases.
To keep up with rising demand for organ transplants, investment is needed to build world-class transplant centers, intensive care units and related medical equipment. Additionally, it is vital that medical workforces are trained and specialized in managing organ donations and transplantation.
Furthermore, clear planning, logistics and transport models must be put in place to manage timely referrals, organ donations and transplants. In tandem, access to these vital yet costly services and treatments must be safeguarded through affordability measures and inclusion within universal healthcare coverage schemes. Success also hinges on the holistic collaboration between the public and private sectors to drive transformative changes.
Laws on organ donations and transplants must address a number of important levers. These include donor eligibility, consent models, ethical standards, procedures for donation and transplantation, the licensing of facilities and doctors, and medical accountability. Perhaps most importantly, it is imperative that public health awareness campaigns are bolstered to educate communities about the importance and positive effects of organ donation, thereby dispelling hesitations.
A single deceased donor can save up to eight lives and help as many as 75 people recover from severe injuries.
Sara Al-Mulla
Family support services at hospitals could provide families with vital information and counseling to help them make informed decisions about organ donation, thereby playing a decisive role in increasing donation rates. The process to be added to a donor registry must be easy and fast. Registries, in essence, rely on donor rates, so expanding the pool should be done in a sustainable and systematic manner.
Despite some gaps, there has been significant progress across certain MENA countries, with success stories covering breakthrough laws, world-class facilities and effective public awareness campaigns. The UAE has made remarkable progress in this field, with the launch of its signature National Program for Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation, "Hayat," responsible for bolstering the work in this field in accordance with global best practices.
Through this program, the UAE established a national donor registry linked to the Emirates ID, licensed specialized transplant facilities and launched public campaigns to increase awareness. One of the clearest signs of the UAE's growing role in lifesaving transplants in the MENA region is the sharp rise in deceased donors per million people. In the UAE, donor rates increased from 0.91 in 2020 to 11.6 in 2024.
The issuance of the 2023 federal law "Concerning Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues" was a groundbreaking step toward regulating all organ and tissue transplants carried out in the UAE, with attention paid to defining "death," licensing health establishments and doctors, banning the trafficking of organs and tissues, and protecting the rights of donors and recipients. One interesting article in this law is the incentivization scheme, wherein priority for organ transplants is given to living donors and their relatives up to the fourth degree.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation continues to advance the provision of organ donations and transplants in Saudi Arabia through multiple pathways, such as managing national programs and centers, raising awareness on the importance of organ donation, and channeling efforts toward preventive measures against end-stage organ failure.
Looking to the future, it is vital that policymakers have organ donation and transplantation high on their agendas. When all is said and done, we can reflect on the timeless wisdom of the Qur'anic verse (5:32), "Whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity."