The certificates, to be authenticated and registered at the Ministry of Health, notary bureaus and the donors’ national identification document (ID), are an attempt to encourage people to donate their organs.

According to former minister of health and population Ashraf Hatem who is currently head of the Health Committee, Article 8 of Law 5/2010 allows organ donations after death provided it is registered in an official document to be approved by the Health Ministry’s Supreme Committee for Organ Transplantation.

“I have signed the certificate along with all of my colleagues at the parliament’s Health Committee,” Hatem said on television. “Each donor gives a chance for eight people to lead a healthy life, and it is possible that people would benefit from the donor’s two corneas, lungs, heart, liver, intestines, and kidneys.”

Hatem called on all cabinet members, journalists, and celebrities to launch an organ donation campaign, explaining that a person’s desire to donate his or her organs will be recorded in the national ID and driving licence.

According to Hatem, the family of a deceased member with the donation card will not have the right to refuse to enforce his or her request. Upon the issuance of the death certificate a person’s national ID will be checked to verify if he or she wants to donate their organs. The Supreme Committee for Organ Transplantation will then be notified, and upon confirmation, the body will be taken to a specialised centre for the transplant, Hatem added.

The committee, he said, will be the entity that selects the centres at which organs would be taken from the body and preserved. The centres are at university and military hospitals and some major hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Population, most notably the National Centre at the Nasser Institute and 48 other licensed centres nationwide.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 8 December, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly