at a conference on organ transplants in Egypt...

at a conference on organ transplants in Egypt, one of the most influential religious figures in the Muslim world Mufti Muhammad Saydi Tantawi of the Università Al-Azhar proposed that the organs of executed people be collected for transplants. Muslim religious figures and defenders of human rights immediately and vigorously spoke out against the fatwa. Fadia Abu Shaba, professor of law at the National Government Centre on Criminal and Social Studies, said that it violated the dignity of prisoners and deprived them of a fundamental right. The Egyptian parliament scheduled an immediate debate on a controversial proposed law on organ transplants, in particular on the definition of death. For the parliamentarians against the draft, taking the organs of a person without their consent is a violation of their fundamental rights. In 1992, the Justice Minister decided that doctors could collect the organs of executed prisoners that were declared clinically dead. But some doctors operated on people that technically were still alive. The minister then reviewed his decision and charged the doctors with murder. Egypt is under the gaze of international health organisations (OMS) to stop the traffic in organs, in particular to foreigners, that the OMS defines as “transplant tourism.”