On July 6, 1999, an official decree from the minister of health cre- ated a committee whose objective was to set the scientific bases for a national organ procurement program.

That is how the National Committee for Organ Donation and Transplantation started. It was meant to coordinate and supervise the activities of the first Lebanese Association for Organ and Kidneys Donation and Transplantation (ALDOR in 1992) and the numerous other associations that followed: Association of the child with renal failure, the Lion's,…

Among the most important achievements of NOODT was when, with the cooperation of ALDOR, it succeeded in training, over 4 successive years, more than 100 physicians and nurses, from all over Lebanon and the neighboring middle eastern countries, in the art and science of organ procurement.

NOODT is starting a Lebanese national Organ procurement strategy. It calls for an early detection and notification of suitable potential donors, a good donor maintenance, and a fair and scientific distri- bution of organs among needing patients on a National Waiting List. In March 1, 2005 by a ministerial decree (No 1/98) from the MOH, it was decided to:

-Merge the National committee with the Eye Bank and change its name to National Committee for

Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation "NOOTDT".

-Define the Lebanese model for organ donation.

-Make the early declaration of death mandatory.

-Introduce the idea of organ and tissue donation in the school program.

-Stress to every medical institution operating on Lebanese soil the obligation of informing NOOTDT

of every death.

-Reconfirm the comprehensive coverage by the MOH of all med- ical costs
incurred by the donor from the time an organ or tis- sue donation is
accepted.