A national shortage of organs and donors has continued to worsen, adding that modest increases to the numbers of organ donors are being far outstripped by a rising number of people awaiting transplants, the Taiwan Organ Registry and Sharing Center said on Thursday.
While the number of organ donors last year increased to 324 people, up from 264 people in 2015, those awaiting organ transplants rose from 8,674 to 9,576 during the same period, it said, adding that the center expects the figure to exceed 10,000 by the end of this year.
The 363 organs donated last year marked a decrease from 410 organs in 2015, the center said, even as 642 tissue and membrane donations marked an increase over 539 in 2015, which shows that tissue donations are becoming more culturally acceptable.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The organ donation rate per 1 million people in Taiwan last year was 14.2, markedly fewer than 48 in Spain, 33.4 in Belgium, 27.3 in Italy, 17.7 in Sweden, 33.3 in the US and 24.5 in the UK, it said.
Aging populations have led to rising demand for transplants around the world, but a cultural aversion to organ donation — originating from the Chinese custom of preserving the whole body for burial — has worsened the problem in Taiwan, center chief executive Chiang Yang-jen (江仰仁) said.
A comprehensive public education effort would be needed to change the culture, he said, adding that the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education should consider incorporating materials about organ donation in the elementary-school curriculum.
“However, that the elderly are increasingly willing to donate their organs is an encouraging sign that a shift in attitudes is taking place,” Chiang said.
Social worker Hsieh Shu-hao (謝書豪), who is based at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taoyuan, said that he has personally witnessed family disputes sparked by organ donations.
He recalled a 20-year-old man who fell seriously ill and when his parents told the family that their child had spoken of donating his organs, his aunts were dismayed, with one saying: “I dare any of you to lay a finger on him.”
Despite complaints from the father that his wishes as a parent should take precedence over the aunts and uncles wishes, the family prevailed and no organ was donated, he said.
“While the bonds of tradition and the inability of a family to agree on a course of action play a large role in the difficulties surrounding organ donation in Taiwan, the real problem is that a lot of people simply do not have it in them to put their loved ones under the knife,” he said.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital organ donation coordinator Liao Li-feng (廖麗鳳) said that there had been a case where the family refused to donate the cornea of their deceased until their religious adviser told them that the dead need a heart to navigate the netherworld, not their eyes.
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