Groups sign agreement on kidney transplants
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)