Chief medic backs our campaign for new organ donor law

Published on Sunday 7 October 2007 01:54

HUNDREDS of lives are set to be saved each year after Scotland's top health official backed a policy U-turn on organ donation.

Following a high-profile campaign by Scotland on Sunday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Harry Burns said he was now "completely behind" a change in the law which would allow organs to be harvested unless relatives specifically objected. Under current laws, organs can only be taken with the explicit permission of close family and Burns had previously stated he did not believe it would be possible to change the rules.

Although Burns said the change to a system of "presumed consent" could only happen with public support, it would mean saving the lives of around 500 Scots a year who die while waiting for a transplant.

Scotland on Sunday has led calls for a change in donation laws since England's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, voiced his own support for the move in a report in July. He said it was the only way to combat Britain's transplant crisis. At the time, Burns said: "Public support for presumed consent is not in evidence, therefore I do not believe we can change our existing position at this stage."

But Burns, speaking last week at a meeting of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Edinburgh, revealed he was now backing a Spanish-style system where consent for organ donation is presumed unless relatives specifically object.

He said: "I am completely behind the idea of change if the public come to accept and want it. I would certainly, on an ethical basis, live with that. We have to have the debate and we have to have public support."

Donaldson denied making a U-turn. He said: "When Sir Liam's report came out, you don't make policy on the hoof, so I gave the standard line."

He added: "I was a transplant surgeon for six years and I was always deeply moved by the sacrifices that relatives made. There's no question we would get considerably more organs, but this is one of these things we need public support on. This is a decision that ministers across the UK need to take. It is one of these situations that might be difficult to manage if one part is different from the others."

The benefits of presumed consent are clear in Spain where organ donation rates are 33.6 organs per million compared with just 13 organs per million in the UK. There are 7,437 people waiting for an organ transplant in Scotland. Patients wait an average of two years for a kidney and more than one year for a lung.

Dr Jean Turner, chief executive of the Scotland Patients Association, said: "My own view is that this is certainly the right way to be going, as long as all the checks and balances are in place to ensure patient care."

Dr George Fernie, a member of the British Medical Association's Scottish Council, said: "The BMA has long been calling for a move to a system of soft presumed consent.

"I am delighted to hear that the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland would consider a change to the current system if public support is demonstrated to exist, which the statistics seem to show to be the case.

"I am also pleased that the CMO has no ethical objections to a similar system as the one used in Spain, which has the highest recorded donor rate in the world.

In Scotland, waiting lists are at an all-time high and too many patients die waiting for an organ."

Cabinet Secretary for Health, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "Changes to the approach to organ donation need to carry the support of the community at large.

"We believe that there is a need for a debate on the issue."