Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has approved awarding of the King Abdulaziz Medal of the Third Order to 426 male and female citizens. The citizens were awarded these medals in honor of the donation of one of their main organs, and these included organs from both living donors and brain-dead persons. The Saudi Press Agency published names of all the donors.

In the Kingdom, citizens, who wish to donate their organs after their death, can do so through registering their details on the website of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation. Anyone who has registered for organ donation is free even to change his decision later.

In a major initiative to encourage organ donation, King Salman has launched Organ Donation Card under which the intending donor has to fill in a form which permits organ donation after death to organ failure patients who are in an urgent need for that organs to maintain their lives or improve their quality of life, thus making it easier for their families to take the decision of organ donation in respect to the will of their deceased relatives.

Organ donor card represents only the will of the donor to donate his organs after death and doesn’t have any obligations to take organs during life or after death but making it easier for their families to take the decision and giving consent for organ donation. Anyone, who wants to express his wish to donate organs, must have the following conditions: the donor should be physically healthy and mentally stable; the donor must be at least 18 years of age; and the donor should neither be addicted to drugs nor taking drugs or alcohol harmful to liver, according to the website of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation.