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Organ Transplantation in the United Arab Emirates: Legal, Ethical and Historical Aspects
Organ transplantation has recently been the subject of significant
public policy attention in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In May 2013,
the first donated organ from a deceased person was successfully
transplanted to a young woman with a damaged kidney. Although the first
laws on organ transplantation were issued in the Arabian Peninsula in
the late 1980s and legislation on organ transplantation has existed in
the UAE since 1993, a national organ transplant programme was not
started until 2007. Since then, transplanted organs have come
exclusively from living, related donors. Mainly due to the absence of a
definition of death in the relevant law, transplants from deceased
donors were not performed. In addition, religious-ethical and
socio-cultural concerns, such as the principle of inviolability of the
human body and the significance and timing of death and burial, exert a
strong influence on potential donors in the region. Some of these
concerns are reflected in the UAE legislation, as well as in the laws
elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula. In order to implement these laws and
promote the readiness of residents to commit to organ donation,
governments have published the rulings of select religious-juridical
scholars who deem organ donation compatible with Islam, and have started
awareness campaigns that aim at breaking the ice regarding deceased
organ donation.
