CAIRO: Head of the Doctors’ Syndicate Hamdy El Sayed refuted claims made by human rights activists that the proposed organ transplant law discriminates between Muslims and Christians.
The draft law that would regulate organ donations and transplants limits the practice to family members and bans it between people of different religions or different nationalities. This would restrict trade in human organs, the syndicate had said in previous statements.
Without any regulation, Egypt has struggled with the problem of organ trafficking for years. Poverty and desperation have led many to be manipulated into selling their organs with little knowledge of the consequences.
“It’s a racist law that calls for discrimination and it discriminates between the Coptic Christians and the Muslim donors and made it less likely for sick patients to get their organ transplants, Naguib Gabriel, head of the Egyptian Human Rights Union, told Daily News Egypt.
Gabriel added that they filed a suit against the Doctor’s syndicate.
On his part El Sayed denied any sectarianism in the law saying that “if some Copts are angered by the law then why is it that Muslims aren’t.
El Sayed added that under the draft law, it’s not possible for a Copt to donate organs to a Muslim and vice versa simply because donations have been restricted to family members up to the fourth degree.
“For starters, it is degrading for both religions if lets say, a poor Christian has to sell his kidney to a rich Muslim, or a poor Muslim has to sell his kidney to a rich Christian. It is not right for either religions and that is why we made this law so we can stop organ trafficking.
El Sayed continued, “It is not about trying to promote differences between religions but it’s just to minimize the trade of organs as much as we can.
Gabriel disagrees. “It will contribute to and widen the gap between Muslims and Christians and then we may find hospitals for Christians only or for Muslims only. Gabriel added that on the long run there would be blood bags for Muslims and others for Christians
“This decision is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood because they are controlling the doctor’s syndicate, and we will be happy if El Azhar and the Church stand with us against this decree, Gabriel added.
Sheikh Gamal Kotb the former Chairman of the Fatwa Committee told pan-Arab paper Al-Hayat that there is nothing in Islam that prevents Muslims from receiving or donating an organ transplant from either Muslim or non Muslim.
El Sayed stressed that the objective of the law is to eliminate organ trafficking. “If organ donations are from the third or fourth degree of the family then there is less of a chance of a trade happening as it’s not likely that family members will sell organs to each other.
“Egypt is different from other places. No one really comes up and says they want to donate their organs to other people who are not in their family. This happens in the West but in Egypt it is mostly the poor people who are desperate and end up selling their organs for money, El Sayed added.
“This happens all around in countries like India, Pakistan and China. It is very degrading for a human being to do this.
El Sayed, who had been busy the past couple of days refuting any intent of religious discrimination, has another battle to worry about: persuading MPs and religious leaders with the viability of the practice.
“The law is being held up because of religious leaders who do not agree with all types of organ donations especially when it comes to cases of brain death. For them, the whole body has to have died, all organs must have come to a stand still, El Sayed said.
He explained that once the debate about brain death is cleared, the vast demand for organ donations would be met. “We need to open more organ donation centers and become a culture which accepts organ transplants and understands organ transplants better.
