Iran Health Minister: Organ transplant with foreigners a disgrace for Iranians
Iran’s Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi told media on Tuesday that organ transplant with non-Iranians is banned in the country to protect “the dignity of Iranians.”
TEHRAN, Iran (Kurdistan24) – Iran’s Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi told media on Tuesday that organ transplant with non-Iranians is banned in the country to protect “the dignity of Iranians.”
Qazizadeh Hashemi told state-run Fars news agency that over a year ago organ transplant between Iranians and non-Iranians was announced illegal.
The Health Minister defended the law, saying, “It is inappropriate if we let foreigners enter Iran, purchase Iranians’ organs and transplant them.”
He added that similar laws exist in most of the countries around the world.
The remarks came in response to the controversies that followed the death of a 12-year-old Afghan girl at Namazi Hospital in Shiraz, Iran.
On Friday, Iranian outlets quoted an Afghan immigrant who said his daughter, Latifeh Rahmani, 12, died after she was denied organ transplant.
Rahmani was hospitalized for kidney issues, and her father was expected to be a living-donor.
However, doctors allegedly refused to accept them because the family didn’t have a legal status in Iran.
Qazizadeh Hashemi denied the reports saying the hospital was willing to operate on the family, but the patient lost her life because of a “lack of time.”
He then blamed the news agencies for promoting hostility “between Iranians and the good people of Afghanistan.”
Shahed Alavi, a Kurdish journalist and analyst, based in Washington, DC spoke to Kurdistan24 about the issues related to organ transplants.
“This Health Minister who is a specialist is unable to cure his own disease which is acute racism. To ‘protect the dignity of Iranians’ the system should deal with patients responsibly,” he explained.
Alavi added that organ transplant between Iranians and non-Iranians is not a disgrace.
Rather, he stated that it is a shame that poverty forces some Iranians to sell organs to survive.
“To this day, a lot of Afghan kids are denied education in Iran because it ‘worries Iranian parents.’ Afghan citizens’ legal complaints are ignored, and they face all sorts of discriminations,” Alavi added.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 950,000 registered Afghan citizens live in Iran.
However, Iran's Ministry of Interior estimates that the total number of Afghans in Iran is around three million.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany