Doctors to fight for change in law on organ donation

Published on Sunday 5 August 2007 00:43

DOCTORS' leaders have launched an action group to campaign for a change in the law on organ donation.

The British Medical Association will lobby MSPs to introduce presumed consent in order to increase the number of transplants carried out in the UK.

They are backed by the Labour MSP George Foulkes, who will introduce parallel private member's bills in the Scottish Parliament and in the House of Lords, where he also has a seat, in an attempt to pass a UK-wide change in the law.

Last night Foulkes and the BMA backed Scotland on Sunday's campaign for an opt-out system and called on ministers to seek the public's views on the matter. He believes support is growing for a situation where everyone is considered a donor unless they object in their lifetime.

The Scottish government has said it does not feel the time is right for a move to presumed consent. But England's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson has signalled his support for the change.

A BMA spokeswoman said: "We are going to talk to the MSPs who have expressed views about this issue because the SNP has given a clear indication that they don't want to throw out the idea and there was a willingness to revisit it. We are now two years on from the previous public consultation, waiting lists are rising, and we think we need to ask the public its views again so we can move forward on this issue.

"We also need the views of the new MSPs because almost one-third of the parliament is new. We will be having various discussions and correspondence with them."

Foulkes said yesterday: "We have agreed to work very closely together on this issue. The best way forward is for me to introduce a parallel private member's bill in Holyrood and the House of Lords, which I am in a unique position to be able to do."

He added: "We have also set up an action group of MSPs, doctors and charities to identify and mobilise support. We need to make it evident that there is a lot of public support for this. We are also going to suggest that the Scottish government considers a new consultation exercise."

The number of patients on the waiting list for an organ transplant in Scotland rose from 702 in July 2005 to 818 last month. Yet the number of transplants dropped from 229 to 222 in the last two years.