Malaysia must do better with organ donation

IN 2024, Malaysia recorded about 200,000 deaths, or roughly 550 every day. Based on global experience, only about 1% of all deaths qualify for organ donation – typically those who die in hospital under controlled conditions such as brain death, with organs still viable for recovery.

That means Malaysia could potentially be performing around 12 cadaveric kidney transplants every day, or about 4,000 a year. Yet the reality is shocking: we only do around 20 such transplants a year.