Struggling Expansion of Postmortem Organ Donation in Central Asia Regions
Whenit comes to organ transplantation, Kazakhstan heavily relies on living donors due to trust issues and religious beliefs. Just 10 out of 86 families gave consent for donation after death in 2024.
Organ donation is crucial for saving lives, yet its availability is often unpredictable, leading to tragic outcomes for patients. The two types of donors are living and posthumous, with living donations being more prevalent in Kazakhstan.
"About 80-90% of donations worldwide are posthumous, but that isn't the case in Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries. Here, 80-90% of donors are living relatives of the patients," said Aidar Sitkazinov, the director of the Republic's transplantation coordination body.
Mistrust in the healthcare system is a significant reason many avoid posthumous donation. Fears of corrupt practices and organ misuse are common, despite laws against such activities in Kazakhstan. Last year alone saw 15 attempts to sell donated organs.
Religion also plays a part. While Islam and Orthodox Christianity, the main religions in the region, don't explicitly forbid posthumous donation, many still hold reservations. This trend isn't unique to Kazakhstan, as studies show a long-standing reluctance to donate organs after death in Islamic countries.
Europe, in contrast, has established practices for organ donation after death, fulfilling up to 50% of the demand. They also use organs from donors who died due to heart failure.
Current situation in KazakhstanAs of May 2025, 4,226 people are waiting for organ donations in Kazakhstan, with 128 being children. Unfortunately, around 300 people die annually due to a lack of organ donors. In 2024, only 10 families out of 86 consented to donation after death.
Kazakhstan uses an opt-in consent system, where individuals must explicitly agree to donate their organs after death. However, their relatives must also give consent. This system was implemented in 2020, following lawsuits from families who felt their deceased loved ones' organs were extracted without consent.
Despite being home to 11 million adults, only 8,000 have opted in to the donation program, while 115,000 have declined. Similar challenges are faced by other Central Asian countries regarding posthumous donation, due to lack of trust, misconceptions, and cultural barriers.
Until public awareness increases, systems become more transparent, and trust improves, the number of organ donations from deceased people is unlikely to significantly grow.
Additional Insights:
- In Kazakhstan, cultural and social norms, mistrust in the healthcare system, legal challenges, and historical lawsuits significantly reduce organ donation rates.
- Public awareness campaigns, simplifying consent processes, and international collaboration could help improve the situation in Kazakhstan.
- Compared to Kazakhstan, Iran has a high rate of kidney transplants from brain-dead donors, while Europe uses organs from donors who died due to heart failure.
- organ donor
- Central Asia
- Kazakhstan
- organ donation
- living donor
- deceased donor
- public awareness
- transparency
- international collaboration
In Kazakhstan, where current public awareness about organ donation remains low, living donors account for 80-90% of donations. This is largely due to mistrust in the healthcare system, cultural and social norms, legal challenges, and historical lawsuits.
Improving the number of organ donations from deceased people in Kazakhstan hinges on increased public awareness, greater transparency in the system, and international collaboration to address common challenges and misconceptions in Central Asian countries.
