Shari`ah, Brain Death, and Organ Transplantation

Abstract

Introduction In the early 1980s, comprehensive developments in the public health system as well as markedly improved possibilities for organ transplantation due to the introduction of immune suppressants,2 namely, the artificial prevention of organ rejection, led to a sudden expansion of transplantation medicine in the Near and Middle East. Long-term artificial respiration, along with improved and expanded intensive care units, enabled respiration and circulation to be maintained despite the partial or complete loss of brain function. This, in turn, secured the necessary blood supply to the organs until they could be removed. Against this backdrop, a comprehensive process of discussion on the factual connections between postmortem organ transplantation and the criterion for determining brain death developed.