B
FIA 2.5 BOOK REVIEW
Our Bodies Belong to God: Organ Transplants, Islam,
and the Struggle for Human Dignity in Egypt by
Sherine Hamdy
Maastricht University
FHML
Bachelor Gezondheidswetenschappen
Beleid, Management en Evaluatie van de zorg
, Book review
Content of the book
The book Our bodies belong to God Organ Transplants, Islam, and the Struggle for
Human Dignity in Egypt, written by Sherine Hamdy, discusses the complex and extensive
issues concerning the national debate on organ transplantation in Egypt. In her book she
explores several topics regarding organ transplantation, especially kidney transplantation, in
Egypt, with the help from various interviews with for example healthcare professionals,
journalists, scholars and patients who suffer from organ failure. The topics vary from the way
organ transplants are portrayed in the Egyptian media to the Egyptian black market in organs
and from the privatization of health care to the growing gap between rich and poor. The book
describes the way how biomedical and religious authorities have a different view on organ
transplantation and how this has developed over time.
The title of the book, ‘Our Bodies Belong to God’, can be explained in different ways.
First of all, some people consider the human body as a property of God, when one dies, their
body returns to its owner. Organ transplantation should not interfere with this. Other people,
including some religious scholars, actually believe that organ transplantation can save
someone’s life, and should not be ruled out by religion. Hamdy does not portray her own
opinion about the matter of organ transplantation in the book, she provides the reader with
knowledge and leaves it to them to form their own opinion about the topic.
As mentioned before, Sherine Hamdy interviewed different people throughout the
book. They all explain their opinion about organ transplantation and their personal experience
with it. In addition to this she completed the book by observing for example hospitals and
medical and religious conferences. Especially the use of interviews with a wide range of
people makes the book very approachable manageable to read for a vast audience. This is
why, in my opinion, the book is not only aimed at professionals such as healthcare workers,
philosophers or medical anthropologists. Every other person who is interested in the debate
about organ donation in Egypt can read this book to extent their knowledge and to learn form
different perspectives. An extensive background knowledge is not necessarily needed, as
Hamdy explains the basic understandings of topic regarding organ transplantation throughout
the book. The book focusses on the debate in Egypt and what role the Islam has in this. This
makes it not only very interesting to read for Egyptian people but also for people form
different countries and cultures. The differences those people might notice in for example
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