IMAAD, in collaboration with Reading Primary Care Trust, Reading Milan Group and Ibrahim’s appeal presents:

The Gift of Life - Organ & Tissue Donation - The Islamic Perspective

Date
8 th August, 1530-1730

Objective
“Whosoever saves the life of one person, it would be as if he saved all of mankind…”
[Holy Qur’an, Surah. 5, ayah 32]

However, there is a huge deficit of blood, organ and tissue donors from the Muslim Community. Moreover, widespread uncertainty remains as to whether donation is in fact permissible in Islam.

This event aims to discuss this important and topical issue with a panel including Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, to cover religious perspectives, families personally affected by the need for life-saving donations and transplant nurse specialists to answer any practical or medical questions.

Free Refreshments, basic health checks and unsupervised crèche facility will be available. There will also be the opportunity to join the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow donation register on the day.

If you have any burning questions on this topic already, Shaykh Mogra is happy to receive them in advance, in order to research them thoroughly. Please email them to info@imaad.org and we will forward them on.

Event Review
There is a tremendous need for more blood, tissue and organ donors from and for the Muslim Community – reasons for this are complex and far reaching, but we felt it was important to confront this topic as a local community. This event aimed to discuss and clarify some of the religious and practical issues surrounding blood and organ donation and raise awareness of the need and means to do so.

Generously supported by Reading Primary Care Trust, and in partnership with Reading Muslim Council and Reading Milan Group, the event involved a number of agencies including the National Blood Transfusion Service, Regional Transplant Teams , the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust and Muslim Council of Britain.

The afternoon was opened following a recitation of Surah Fatiha, by an informative and emotive talk by Sister Asma Meer from “Ibrahim’s Appeal”. This charity was set up by the parents of Ibby, who died from a rare blood disorder aged 2years, after failure to secure a successful bone marrow transplant match. The charity now works to raise awareness of the need for more bone marrow donors on national registers from ethnic minority communities (being from a similar racial origin increases the likelihood of successful tissue match). A nurse specialist from the Anthony Nolan Trust then outlined how to join the national marrow donation register, what a donation would entail and its potentially life saving implications for the recipient.

Dr. Shuja Shafi, chair of MCB health and medicine committee, kindly stepping in at the very last minute for Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, then spoke about some the issues surrounding permissibility of donation within Islam. He outlined some of the widely held reservations on this issue, but discussed how and why the majority of scholars, (and the Muslim Council of Britain) agree that blood, organ and tissue donation should be allowed and encouraged.

Representatives from the local blood transfusion and transplant services then explained some practical issues regarding how to donate blood, safety issues surrounding blood screening for infection etc, the donor card system, what happens if organs need to be transplanted, and illustrating what life can be like for patients waiting for donor organs.

Folllowing the talks, a “health fayre” accompanied refreshments, during which there were opportunities to collect more information from the local transplant teams, sign up for donor cards, the blood donation register and even have blood taken to join the marrow register. Following the policy of “prevention being better than cure” in terms of trying to reduce the number of potential organ recipients (!), basic health checks were also offered to screen for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes – these proved enormously popular and informative for all age groups!

The event was intended to raise awareness and stimulate discussion on what remains a controversial but important issue within the community. Whilst it was difficult to cover these complex topics in any great depth in one afternoon, hopefully the opportunity for some thought and possibly action will result in each of us making more informed choices about donating blood, organs and tissue, potentially, even saving lives.

Venue
Friends Meeting House, Church St, Reading (click here for map)

Useful Links
- www.ibrahimsappeal.com

- NHS Guide to Organ Donation in Islam (includes PDF leaflets in Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali).

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