The law approves taking dead patient’s corneas: MP

CAIRO – 1 August 2018: The head of the Health Affairs Committee in Egypt’s Parliament, Abdel Hamid Abaza, said Tuesday that the Egyptian law approves taking the cornea of a recently dead patient without the consent of the dead patient's family.

Abaza added that the law criminalizes taking out the body’s organs, but this law does not include the cornea.

“Both eye banks of Cairo and Ain Shams universities were closed due to the scarcity of donated corneas, and importing corneas costs the citizens and the state a huge amount of money,” added Abaza.

Qasr El-Eyni Hospital witnessed a recent predicament when the family of a patient accused the hospital of stealing the deceased patient’s corneas; the hospital denied the accusation. The hospital noted that the law approves taking the dead patient’s corneas in order to save others from blindness.