Deputies lead by example to become organ donors

DEPUTIES on the House Health Committee yesterday took the initiative to register themselves on the organ donor list, following the suggestion of EDEK’s Marinos Sizopoulos.
Despite various reservations, the committee unanimously agreed on the move, with some members saying they were already on the list.

Sizopoulos’ suggestion was made in the framework of the Health Ministry’s campaign to inform the public on the advantages of organ donation.

Committee Chairman Eleni Theocharous of DISY said all conscientious citizens across the world had an obligation to enlist as organ donors. “If someone’s death can help a fellow human being to live a better life, then they should [donate their organs],” said Theocharous.

She added: “We are saluting this proposal. If deputies make the decision to enlist as organ donors, they will set an example to the public.”

Sizopoulos added that Parliament could pioneer such a serious humanitarian campaign.
The Chairman of the House Communications Committee, DIKO’s Zacharias Koulias, said he would not have a problem with being a donor, though he added that the matter was sensitive and needed to be handled with care.

But DISY’s Ionas Nicolaou, the head of the House Legal Affairs Committee, said this was an action that should be embraced by everybody.

Nicos Tornaritis, chairman of the House Education Committee, announced that he was already on the list.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.