KIDNEYS are the main organ being awaited – 99.8% of Malaysians on the organ donor list want it.
But Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam has a rather sad prognosis – such patients will have to wait a long while for a second lease on life.
In the meantime, he expected the waiting list and national deficit for donor organs to keep growing.
In a written reply to Ahmad Lai Bujang (BN-Sibuti), the minister said the donor rate in Malaysia was one donor per million people.
He said although more Malaysians had been registering as donors, “supply was far too low for demand”.
“This situation has caused many patients to go to China and India to undergo transplant operations.
“But this is not encouraged as the identities of the donors are not known and exploits a community of lower social-economic status,” he said, adding that doing so was also in violation of basic ethical medical practices and human rights as enshrined in the 2008 Istanbul Declaration against organ trade.
There are 19,895 patients on the local organ waiting list.
