A courageous U-turn

Published on Sunday 7 October 2007 01:54

POLITICIANS hate making U-turns; doctors, more than most people, don't like admitting they were wrong. The fact that, as chief medical officer, Harry Burns straddles both worlds makes his change of mind on organ transplantation all the more significant, and courageous.

Just three months ago, Dr Burns said he did not believe that Scotland could move to a system whereby it was presumed that organs could be harvested from a dead person unless relatives forbade it. Under current arrangements, organs can only be taken for transplantation if the next of kin explicitly agrees - regardless of the expressed wishes of the deceased.

It has been estimated that a move to 'presumed consent' would provide enough additional hearts, kidneys and other organs to save as many as 500 lives a year, and Scotland on Sunday has been campaigning for a just such a change in policy. We, therefore, welcome Dr Burns to the cause, and the conversion of the nation's leading doctor is all the more significant given his past work as a transplant surgeon.

We hope that he can use his experience and position to help convince the nation of the need for change - as he rightly points out, public approval is necessary for this to happen. He must also work on his political masters, who have, so far, resisted taking a lead on the issue. They have a moral duty to do so, and Scots will continue to die needlessly until they do.