Organ transplants have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, the practise was banned until recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
In Islam, the body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought, particularly in the past, viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed in society, and among scholars, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
Performing transplants with the organs of dead donors was legalised in the UAE in 1993, but the law failed to include a medical definition of death.
The ambiguity related to whether a patient was brain dead, or merely cardiac dead, and so it was avoided for 20 years.
Transplants were restricted to organs from living donors, usually kidney operations. Some travelled abroad for treatment, often at significant expense.
In 2013, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health and Awqaf, the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments, defined brain death.
This was a medical milestone and the first donation from a deceased patient took place in May 2013, with a kidney being flown from Saudi Arabia.
Latifa Saeed was the first Emirati to receive a transplant from a deceased donor, at the age of 23 in 2013.
She had been on dialysis since she was seven years old.
But the authorities were still not satisfied with the legal framework and waited for an update of the 1993 law. This came in 2016 under an updated presidential decree.
The organ transplant law decreed by the President, Sheikh Khalifa, and took effect in March 2017.
Dr Ameen Al Amiri, assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Health and Prevention, said at the time, that “the law provides a clear definition of death - in keeping with fatwas given by the councils of senior scholars in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and other Islamic nations.”
The law clarifying organ transplantation from living people and the deceased was passed to the huge relief of patients and their families.
The National has reported on a number of Emirati patients who had resorted to transplants abroad and returned with life threatening complications.
In recent months, plans have been put in place to build a donor programme for the first time, with Emiratis and expats given the option to donate in the event of their death.
The mechanism to be a donor is still being studied, but is expected to be ready in the coming months.
In addition, hospitals have begun asking the families of patients who pass away if their relative would donate their organs.
Such a system will play a key role in saving the lives of hundreds of patients.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”