Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (SR)

Panaji, Jul 30: At a conference on spirituality and organ donation held in the capital on Saturday, religious representatives of three major faiths advocated their support to the noble cause. The conference was organised by the Indian Medical Association, Goa Branch and the Goa Union of Journalists.

As reported in TOI, Fr Donato Rodrigues, Sadguru Brahmeshanandacharya Swami and Maulana Mohammed Zafar Alam Nadvi said their religions championed reaching out to people in need through organ donations, provided there was no commercialisation of organs or harm caused to the recipient through the donated organ.

The clerics also talked about what constituted a fair and beneficial organ donation process according to their faiths. Calling organ donation the sacred duty and social responsibility of a person, Rodrigues, a professor of moral theology at the Rachol Seminary, said the Church insisted on the donor remaining anonymous. Swami Sadguru, founder of the International Sadguru Foundation, spoke on the importance of humanity and encouraged people to donate their organs should an occasion arise.

The imam of Masjid-ul-Abrar at Margao, Maulana Nadvi, said that Islam permitted neither buying nor selling of organs. His support to organ donation was conditional on doctor’s confirmation that the recipient would not survive without the organ.

Other eminent dignitaries also shared their valuable advice in the forum. Dr Amol Mahaldar, consultant nephrologist and transplant physician at Manipal Hospitals, Goa, said the state saw a large number of road accidents and once a panel of doctors declare such a victim brain-dead, his/her organs could be donated with the consent of the family.

Dr Ana Franca, the national transplant coordinator of the Portuguese Institute of Blood and Transplantation, ministry of health, said organs from one brain-dead person could save eight lives and improve the quality of life of at least 100 other people through tissue donations.