Groups sign agreement on kidney transplants

JAKARTA (JP): Religious leaders, government officials and doctors agreed on Saturday to permit transplants of kidneys from corpses.

Fourteen representatives of religious organizations, the government and professional groups signed the "Kemayoran Agreement" at the end of a three-day symposium on kidney donations held in Kemayoran, Jakarta.

Chief of the Indonesian National Kidney Foundation, R.B. Sidabutar, said the five religions recognized in Indonesia -- Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism -- had been represented at the symposium.

Among the professional organizations which signed the agreement were the Indonesian Medical Association and the Association of Emergency Doctors. The government was represented by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice.

The signatories agreed that kidneys for transplants are in short supply in Indonesia as a result of the rising incidence of kidney failure here.

They further agreed to disallow trade in bodily organs and declared that doctors have the authority to pronounce a patient admitted to them to be dead.

Sidabutar said the agreement is expected to be followed by the issuance of religious edicts in the near future regarding transplants of kidneys from deceased donors.

He said that the signatories had agreed that, for a transplant operation to be performed, there should be at least a 70 percent chance that it will succeed.

"If (the probability of success) is less than that, the operation should not be performed," he said, as quoted by Antara.

According to Sidabutar, a kidney transplant from a living donor costs Rp 12 million (about US$5,300), while a transplant from a corpse will cost only Rp 3 million. He said that Indonesians who undergo kidney transplant operations in India spend about Rp 50 million, of which about Rp 12 million goes to purchase the kidney.

Hasan Basri, who chairs the Indonesian Ulemas Council -- the umbrella organization of Indonesian Moslem groups -- said the council is currently preparing an edict on kidney transplants.

So far, the influential council has allowed transplantation of corneas from deceased donors, Basri said. "By the same token, kidney transplants from corpses do not conflict with religious rulings," he added.

About 300 people took part in the symposium, including well- known experts Faissal A.M. Shaheen of Saudi Arabia, Zaki Morad of Malaysia, and Pudji Rahardjo and Fahmi Saifuddin of Indonesia. (pan)