This was an interesting topic I read in todays Independent. Since 2001 the number of patients waiting for major transplants has risen from 5,500 to nearly 8,000. This was an alarming statistic as I remember at school we would be almost forced to sign a donor card when reaching 16.
Yesterday the Government accepted a report from a group of expert medical advisers which recommended against Britain adopting an “opt-out” system of organ donation, to boost transplant rates. Although widely trailed in advance, the decision is a surprise because an opt-out system has received vigorous backing from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and the Chief Medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, as well as other organisations such as the British Medical Association.
Under an opt-out system, there would be a presumption that a person’s organs would be available for transplant after their death, unless they had registered an objection while still alive, or their relatives objected. Under the current “opt-in” system, the public are encouraged to indicate their willingness to donate their organs after death by adding their names to the UK Transplant donor register, and to tell their relatives of their wishes. But only 25 per cent of adults have done so whereas 65 per cent say (in surveys) they would be prepared to donate their organs.
I feel that as long as we live a fairly healthy life then there is no reason why hospitals should not have the rights to use our organs provided there is no religious or potential issues revolving around this. How many more healthy organs will be buried or cremated when they can go towards helping the lives of those who need them most.
Spain is always cited as a success in organ donation because its donor rates are almost three times higher than the UK (34.4 per million population in 2007 compared with 13.4). But while the law introducing presumed consent – an opt-out system – was passed in Spain in 1979, donor rates did not begin to rise until a decade later in 1989 when the Spanish National Transplant Organisation was founded, which boosted the number of transplant co-ordinators and other measures.
Dr Rafael Matesanz, the organisation’s president, told the taskforce that Spain’s success had nothing to do with the change in the law. “The families are always approached. They always have the last decision and there are great variations from region to region,” he said. When Britons living in Spain were approached, their families refused in 9 per cent of cases, compared with 43 per cent in the UK, he said.
Can we not just learn from Spain?