BUTTERWORTH: The number of organ donors among youths, aged 20 to 40, is increasing due to the ongoing awareness campaign every year, said chairman of the Penang Hospital’s Department of Forensic Medicine, Datuk Dr Zahari Noor.
He said the development showed that people were now more knowledgable and open to organ donation.
“For me that’s a ‘good point’ because they will expose their children to it, and that is why we will not cease to campaign every year, and from time to time. We hope that the misunderstanding on the issue of organ donation continues to decline,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters at the ‘One Pledge, A Million Hopes’ street campaign in conjunction with the Organ Donation Awareness Week here, yesterday.
Dr Zahari said people often had a misconception that organ donation involved all the organs in the human body, and this led them to be afraid to make a pledge.
“That assumption is incorrect. Not all organs can be donated, only some organs in certain cases. For example, for patients who have been certified with ‘brain death’, only organs such as the heart, liver (not the entire liver) and lungs can be donated, but only with the permission of the next-of-kin,” he said. — Bernama