The Kenya National Blood Transfusion and Organ Transplantation Bill is receiving expert input before being forwarded to Parliament (see P2). It will allow Kenyans to donate body parts upon death.
Around 2,000 people are on the waiting list for kidney transplants at Kenyatta National Hospital. But the hospital only carries out about 15 transplants a year because of a shortage of kidneys.
A kidney transplant is a straightforward operation that saves a patient from undergoing weekly dialysis.
This bill might seem gruesome but it should be supported by legislators and the public.
The body becomes a shell after death when the soul departs. It does no harm to harvest a kidney. That kidney might save a life. Out of death comes life. Surely that is positive.
The doctors should even go one step further in their bill. They should require Kenyans to state in advance if they don't want their organs to be harvested in case of death. The default position should be that they are willing to give up their organs. Then doctors would have no shortage of transplant organs to save Kenyan lives.
Quote of the day: "Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking."
Idi Amin
The Ugandan dictator was overthrown on 11 April 11, 1979
