'Presumed Consent' Plans Rejected

A panel of experts has rejected plans for a new system of "presumed consent" organ donation.

The UK Organ Donation Taskforce, set up by the Government to help increase the number of organ donors, said there was not enough evidence to suggest the changes would see an increase in donation rates.

Elizabeth Buggins, Chair of the taskforce, said that while the system of presumed consent in Spain had been followed by a rise in the number of people donating organs, she added the rise was not thought to be down to the implementation.

Ms Buggins commented that Spain had the best organ donation rate in the world.

"We found from recipient families and donor families that the concept of gift was very important to them and presumed consent would undermine that concept," Ms Buggins said.

"We also found that it has the potential to erode trust in doctors, and we know that is very important to the levels of donation."

Health Secretary Alan Johnson today announced that £4.5 million as been made available over the two years 2008-2010 for a major campaign starting in March 2009 to make people aware of the importance of organ donation. The plans would hope to see 20 million people registered on the organ donor register by 2010, and 25 million on the register by 2013.

However, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said if the campaign did not have the desired effect, a switch to presumed consent was a possibility.

Mr Brown said: "I'm not ruling out a further change in the law.

"We will revisit this when we find out how successful the next stage of the campaign has been."

Responding to the news, the BMA's Head of Science and Ethics, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, said: "We are obviously disappointed by this decision. The BMA firmly believes that presumed consent, combined with improvements to the transplantation infrastructure, is the way forward.

"We are, however, pleased to see that this option has not been completely dismissed and that the issue is to be reviewed again in five years' time."

There are an estimated 8,000 people in the UK who require an organ transplant, but only 3,000 operations are carried out each year.

Around 1,000 people in the UK die every year after waiting for a transplant.

(JM)