Ethical and legal aspects of organ transplantation in Iran

Does the Iranian model of kidney donation compensation work as an ethical global model?

“…Though compensation for organ donation can occur in many forms, including medical benefits, funeral incentives, tax benefits, and many other avenues, direct cash and financial benefits naturally garner the most attention and discussion. The most notable example of this type of system of cash-compensated organ donation is Iran, and they have one of the most successful transplant systems in the world that has erased their kidney waiting list since late 1999 (Larijani, Zahedi, and Taheri, 2004).…”

“…The role of the IPKF and other charity organizations that also work in matching potential donors with recipients, such as the Dialysis and Transplant Patients Association (DATPA), cannot be overstated, because their involvement cuts out the "middle-man" of organ brokering. This greatly lessens the chances of corruption, favoritism, and exploitation, because no conflicts of interest will occur if these organizations and the transplant teams have no financial ties to the matching of the pair (Larijani, Zahedi, and Taheri, 2004).…”

Short history about renal transplantation program in Iran and the world: Special focus on world kidney day

“…At first the donations were mostly from emotionally related individuals such as the patient's husband or wife but this range rapidly extended to include strangers and in time, the number of non-relative organs predominated. In that situation, because only 30 percent of patients in the waiting list for transplantation could receive a kidney from LRD, this program was an obligatory approach for saving many lives not merely for ameliorating quality of life (14,15). By virtue of the teaching of new medical teams, the number of renal transplantation teams increased from 2 to 32 by the end of 2000 (11).…”

“…This viewpoint is based on a decision by Al-Azhar Islamic University taken in 1977 and a Fatwa by a group of great scholar of Saudi Arabia in 1981. This viewpoint is noted by legislators of Islamic countries and related laws in these countries are based on the views of religious scholars (20).…”

“…The recent designa-tion of renal disease as an important noncommunicable disease at the UN High Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases is one step in this direction (15). But early detection and prevention programs will never prevent ESRD in everyone with CKD, and kidney transplantation is an essential, viable, cost effective and life-saving therapy which should be equally available to all people in need.…”