VANCOUVER — Of all religious groups, Muslims are the most resistant to organ donation — largely because they’re confused about whether it’s permitted within their faith, a British medical expert told delegates to an international transplantation conference in Vancouver Tuesday.

Dr. Adnan Sharif, a Muslim kidney specialist completing his training, led an international survey to find out why Muslims agree with organ donation, and would happily accept a transplant, but aren’t so keen on consenting to being donors.

In his presentation to delegates at the 23rd international Congress of The Transplantation Society, Sharif said nearly three-quarters of the 891 participants in the survey said they would be glad to receive an organ if needed, but only 10.6 per cent of respondents were registered organ donors.

In an interview after his talk, Sharif said just over a third believed it was compatible with their Islamic beliefs. For the others, the two biggest reasons cited for being reluctant to donate was their interpretation of the Koran and the advice they heard from spiritual leaders at their local mosques.

Sharif said he has long been curious about the issue, especially because he often finds himself having to tell Muslim patients needing organ transplants that they’ll have to wait twice as long as others, largely because there are far too few donors with similar ethnicity who would be good tissue matches.

He said he caused a bit of a stir in his own family when he announced he was a registered organ donor.

His parents and three brothers have not followed suit but they are at least “open” to the idea.

“Muslims have this argument, this belief, that organ donation is a sin even though most scholars say it’s OK, and in fact, welcome, because of the belief that to save one life is to save all humanity.

“Transplantation obviously did not exist when the Koran was written. There is a line that says you shouldn’t deface the human body. It is a reference to ancient Arab practices of defacing bodies after death. I think people do use that as an excuse not to be organ donors,” added Sharif, who conducted the survey with four colleagues from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.

He said the survey detected some disturbing attitudes that would appear to be based on prejudice. For instance, almost a quarter of respondents said they would only want to donate an organ if they knew it was going to another Muslim. About 10 per cent said they would prefer to receive an organ from a fellow Muslim.

“It’s a help-your-own kind of attitude, but to direct an organ to a certain individual is not only unethical, but illegal.”

Muslim apprehension around organ donation appears to be due to conflicting messages from Islamic leaders, he said.

“One of the problems with Islam is that there is no central authority, no one body, that speaks with one voice so people make their minds up based on various interpretations,” he said. “We found in our survey that the older and more religious you are, the less likely you are to agree to be an organ donor.”

The online and printed survey — which solicited respondents through word of mouth, social networking and Muslim organizations and mosques — is expected to be published in a medical journal soon.

Sharif said for the past several years, transplant experts have taken a tread softly approach in order to be politically correct about cultural and religious sensitivities.

But he believes it is time to change strategies and be more blunt and forceful.

“We need to target opinion leaders, and those with influence. I’m not sure we’ll win this argument but it’s time we took a new approach.”

Vancouver Sun