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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Health & Science

Celebrate kidney donors and doctors, do not victimise them, surgeon says

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Under investigation
  • Consultant surgeon Torngee Malu said kidney donors and doctors should be recognised rather than victimised amid an investigation into alleged organ harvesting in Nasarawa State.
  • Malu said Nigerian law permits kidney donation by adults who give informed consent and undergo procedures at standard hospitals.
  • He called for a coordinated system to encourage organ donation and warned against allowing social media allegations to shape public perceptions of medical procedures.

Nigerian surgeon Torngee Malu has urged the public to celebrate kidney donors and transplant doctors rather than treating them as suspects amid an investigation into alleged organ harvesting in Nasarawa State.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, Malu commented on the arrest and public parade of two doctors and other suspects by the Nigeria Police Force. He argued that Nigeria’s weak blood-donation system showed the need to encourage voluntary donations and avoid stigmatising people who give parts of their bodies for medical treatment.

I think that these people should be celebrated and not victimised. Both the people who had the heart to donate a kidney and those who carried out the procedure, they should be celebrated.

— Torngee MaluThe surgeon called for donors and doctors to be recognised amid the organ-harvesting investigation.

“I think that these people should be celebrated and not victimised. Both the people who had the heart to donate a kidney and those who carried out the procedure, they should be celebrated,” Malu said. “As far as I’m concerned, they are heroes because they have brought something that is new to Nigeria.”

As far as I’m concerned, they are heroes because they have brought something that is new to Nigeria.

— Torngee MaluMalu praised the people involved in the transplant procedures.

Malu said organ donation should take place within a regulated system instead of being judged through social media allegations. He said six procedures had been performed during the year and that all had been successful, adding that kidney disease kills 50 people a day in Nigeria, according to his remarks.

He said the Nigerian Health Care Act of 2014 covers organ donation, including kidney, blood, skin, egg and sperm donations. The law, he said, requires donors to be adults, provide consent and undergo procedures in a standard hospital. Applying those conditions to the case under investigation, Malu said the people involved were adults, including one who was 23 or older, and had consented to the procedures.

So we should be encouraging more people to go into these procedures under a coordinated system, rather than following social media sensations to victimise doctors. That’s what I think.

— Torngee MaluHe argued for regulated donation and against judging medical procedures through social media claims.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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