THE ORGAN SHORTAGE CRISIS IN MALAYSIA

• Main Author: Farah Salwani Bt. Muda @ Ismail
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia 2016
• Subjects: Organ shortage; Crisis; Malaysia
• Online Access: http://ddms.usim.edu.my/handle/123456789/10004

Organ donation is the most valuable gift of life that one could possibly offer to another: It is the best if not the only life saving therapy for patients with end stage failure' of most essential organs including liver; kidney, heart, lungs and eye corneas. In each organ donation procedure, normally, the whole or partial organ from the organ donor is transplanted to an organ recipient, to replace the recipient h damaged or failing organ with a working one. This is the reason it is often referred to, as 'the gift of life '. Until today, organ donation procedures has blessed many chronic, end stage organ failure patients with better quality lives and has even saved thousands of precious lives too. However; despite rapid developments in transplant technology, all this would become meaningless if the global problem of organ shortage continues to be a barrier; impeding many more from benefiting from it. Currently, Malaysia is also confronting similar organ shortage problem as the pool of human organs available, is insufficient to meet the rising demands for it. Thus, this paper will highlight the organ shortage crisis in Malaysia, reasons causing it, and suggest solutions to overcome the problem.