ORGANS COULD be taken for transplant from all deceased people in Wales unless their families declare outright objections, under a plan announced yesterday by the Welsh assembly.
The move came as the chief medical officer for England and Wales, Liam Donaldson, said it was “a scandal” that so many people were dying because of the shortage of donations.
Welsh minister for health and social services Edwina Hart will now negotiate with Westminster for the necessary powers to introduce the system in 2010.
Under the Human Tissue Act 2006, people must give written consent before their organs can be taken after death, but the wishes of four out of 10 people are not respected subsequently by their families. Ms Hart said she favoured stronger rules where consent would be presumed, irrespective of the families’ wishes. But she added: “I recognise that this is a sensitive and emotive subject.”
During a public consultation over the summer, some Welsh organisations raised concerns that organs taken by mandatory order would be used elsewhere in the UK.
“[They] would still become part of the UK-wide pool of organs available for transplant and the positive impact of a change to the consent system in Wales would be diluted by the system in the rest of the UK,” a Welsh assembly report said in September.
In 2008 a UK organ donation expert group called for changes to increase the number of organs available for transplant, but it did not go as far as favouring the “opt-out” rule. The group’s recommendations were opposed by the British Medical Association, which said an “opt-out” system would increase organ donations by 50 per cent and save 30 lives a year in Wales.
Mr Donaldson criticised the 2008 taskforce for its refusal to support the mandatory removal of organs and disagreed with one of its core judgments that presumed consent would not increase organ numbers. “People are dying on the transplant waiting list. I believe it’s a scandal. This prissiness about the idea of giving organs to somebody after you have died – I think it’s something that’s not supported by the public,” he said.
