A Holistic Assessment of Organ Transplantation Activities, Scientific Productivity on Brain Death in Islamic Countries, and Comparison of the Outcomes with the United Nations Development Statistics

Abstract

About one-fourth of the world population belongs to the religion of Islam, and a significant number of people in the Muslim society, including health professionals, are dedicated themselves to the holy book Qur'an but unclear about the religious teachings on organ donation and transplantation. These people are dependent on religious rulings declared by ecclesiastical authorities (scholars and imams). In this study, we aimed to question the attitude of Islamic nations on organ donation and transplantation. Secondly, we endeavored to investigate how the Islamic perspective on these issues influences scientific productivity about the subject of brain death, which is undeviatingly related to organ transplantation. The term "brain death" was searched in Thomson Reuters, Web of Science search engine, only including Muslim countries. All of the data obtained were subjected to bibliometric analysis. We also compared the transplantation statistics of Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation Organization with the development statistics of the United Nations (UN). The two leading Muslim countries in terms of scientific productivity about brain death are Turkey and Iran. Transplantation proceedings is the leading scientific journal on this subject. These two countries have outperformed other Islamic countries in terms of organ donation and transplantation statistics. We also revealed that the human development index and education index of the UN have a positive correlation with the number of deceased transplantation, which is directly related to the number of brain-death-diagnosed cases (r 0.696, p < 0.05 and r 0.771, p < 0.05, respectively). Additionally, we found a positive correlation between expenditure on research and development data of the UN with the number of total transplantations performed and the number of scientific articles on brain death (r 0.889, p 0.01 and r 0.634, p < 0.05, respectively). There is not a consensus about brain death and organ transplantation in Islamic nations, and the majority of these countries have various hindrances about organ donation and transplantation. The legal authorities, health professionals, religious rulers, and media should spend every effort to educate the people on organ donation and transplantation. And, policymakers of Islamic nations should allocate extra funds for education and scientific activities to break down negative views on organ donation and transplantation.