Dr Rizvi’s talk inspires 40 JPMC doctors,medics to pledge organ donation

Forty doctors and paramedics pledged to donate their organs after death for saving other people’s lives after listening to a motivational speech on Friday by Prof Adeeb ul Hassan Rizvi, who said there was no bar on donating organs after death.

Dr Rizvi, who is the director of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), had been invited by Dr Raza Rizvi, head of the Neurosurgery Department of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), to deliver a talk on cadaver organ donation.

The moving speech persuaded doctors, nurses and other paramedics of the hospital to fill out the pledge form and announce they would donate their organs after death for saving lives of people. JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali was among those who made the pledge.

A strong advocate of cadaver organ donation, Dr Rizvi said most of the Islamic schools of thought had given fatwas (religious decrees) in favour of cadaver donation.

Describing as heroes people who pledged to donate their organs, he said that “such people never die as those who receive their organs always pray for them and remember them in good words”.

Quoting from the Holy Quran, he said anyone who saves the life of a person saves all humanity. He urged doctors, paramedic and others associated with the medical profession to come forward and fill out the pledge form, giving consent to their organs being used for saving lives.

Dr Rizvi also cited the example of renowned social worker Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi, who donated both his eyes after death, saying that his corneas were helping two persons to see the light of the world. 

He added that hundreds of people died due to organ failure in Pakistan every month, and those lives could be saved with cadaver donations.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Seemin Jamali said she would not require any of her organs after death and it would be wise to use her organs for saving any person’s life.

Giving her consent to cadaver donation, she hoped that others would also follow her and come forward to fill out the pledge form so that lives of people could be saved.

Dr Jamali said doctors and paramedics strived for saving people with their skills throughout their lives and they could save more lives by donating their organs after their passing away.