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Children, organ donation, and Islam: A report of an engagement day of Islamic scholars, young Muslims and pediatric transplant and donation professionals

Although Islamic scholars have debated deceased donation, many Muslims are unaware of these debates or relevant Islamic rulings. There has been little specific discussion about end-of-life issues in children, such as deceased donation within the Muslim community or, indeed, wider society. Consequently, professionals caring for dying children meet Muslim parents uncertain about the permissibility of donation or post-mortems in Islam. Parents may err on the side of caution to prevent sinning and decline lifesaving donation. Islam is not unique in this regard, but Muslim families face specific considerations related to different branches of Islam, traditional culture, and place of family origin. To address this, the Great Ormond St Children's Hospital Organ Donation Committee convened a meeting ‘Children, Organ Donation, and Islam’ together with religious leaders and scholars, transplant recipients, young Muslims, hospital chaplains, transplant physicians/surgeons, and intensive care staff. This report describes the meeting's initial review of pediatric donation, the recipient situation and respectful organ retrieval and transplantation practice followed by an exploration of relevant Islamic rulings and the group's proposed way of tackling the lack of information available for both families and healthcare staff. Discussion within both donation and Muslim communities can hopefully help develop processes to ensure families have supportive, accurate information when faced with choices in their child's end-of-life care. Acknowledging this is the experience of one multicultural city, we do hope our approach may be of interest and encourage others to similar community engagement in this challenging area of faith and pediatric organ donation.