Organ Donation among Malaysian: The Malay Dilemma toward Social Development

Abstract

Organ donation among the world community today is not a new phenomenon. The noble act of organ donation by donors that at times, has no blood relations has enabled many patients with chronic diseases to earn a second chance in life. The same scenario also takes place in Malaysia in which awareness of organ donation to help parties in need is not new. Many citizen of Malaysia is aware that their contribution gives "new life" to the needy. This little "scarifies" indirectly shows that Malaysian people put a high value for the social development in their country. The Malays in Malaysia is the largest ethnic group, but unfortunately, the statistics show that the Malays are the least to sign up for organ donation. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the causes that prevented them from doing so. This study was conducted by taking into account three factors; religion, awareness, as well as perception or views on organ donation willingness among the Malays. Of the three factors studied, only two significant factors contributed to the main question of why the Malays shy away from organ donation and they are religion and perception. This shows that the Malays are aware that organ donation is a noble practice, but limited perception and knowledge of religion limit their participation. Therefore, it is recommended that a comprehensive discussion among religious leaders in changing the perception and explain the laws of religion on the issue of organ donation is carried out continuously in various mediums so that the awareness of the Malays in organ donation can be fully utilized for the benefit of everyone.

Kidney donation: bridging the gap in the shortage of kidney transplants in Malaysia

“…Furthermore, most Malays refused to donate a kidney due to the lack of transparent disclosure or discussion on this issue [17]. This finding concurs with national reports that show Malays donated organs the least among the three main ethnicities [3].…”

A pilot study: pledge your teeth! The willingness of dental students to donate their teeth

“…A study on organ donation in Malaysia reported that Malay and Muslim were unsure or unwilling to donate their organs as compared to Chinese and Buddhist (Abidin et al, 2013). The Malays face the dilemma of being sceptical of whether their religion permits them to make organ donations (Noordin et al, 2012). As the majority of students were Malay (96.5%) and Muslim (97.7%) in this study, it was quite challenging to justify whether the same scenario applies to tooth donation as there was a small number of students representing other ethnicities (3.5%) and religion (2.3%).…”

Psychosocial Factors, Knowledge and Attitudes Influencing Skin and Heart Valve Donation among Healthcare Professionals in Singapore

“…10,11 Another evidence of traditional cultural values influencing people's decision to donate tissue/organs is the statistics obtained from 2000 to 2010 by National Transplant Resource Centre, Kuala Lumpur, which reported that donation among the Malay community (the dominant ethnic group in Malaysia) contributed to only 6.36% of the total organ donation as compared to 61.86% by Chinese and 31.78% by Indians; the study cited the Malay community's perception that their religion, Islam, did not permit them to donate tissue/organs as the primary reason for their low donation rates. 12 Thirdly, although most healthcare professionals support tissue donation, not many of them have registered to pledge for tissue donation. This attitude of healthcare professionals may be attributed to several reasons: 1) lack of awareness that tissue donation is by opt-in system (MTERA), and not an opt-out system (HOTA) for organs; 2) lack of information about what is required of them to join the registry; and 3) signing up as a pledger is not a priority.…”