Transplant priority plan to boost organ donor registration

PLACING registered organ donors on a transplant priority list and helping to pay their families' funeral expenses are two radical ideas floated in a report published today.

Both are suggested as ways to encourage organ and tissue donation in a consultation paper launched by the independent think-tank the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

The first proposal would mean offering registered donors a place at the head of the queue should they need a new kidney, heart or other organ. The second would involve contributing to the funeral expenses of a dead donor's relatives.

A variety of other options, including personal "thank you" letters and certificates, souvenirs such as T-shirts and mugs, "presumed consent" systems and financial incentives are also explored.

The latter could encompass anything from modest expenses payments to the regulated selling of organs, eggs or sperm and a fully-fledged free market.

There is a serious shortage of transplant organs, despite 16.5 million Britons having their names on the organ donor register.

Last year, about 3,500 transplant operations were carried out in the UK, but 8,000 patients are still waiting for an organ.

Sperm and eggs are also in short supply for fertility treatments, with 1,700 requests a year not being met.

The Nuffield Council consultation is aimed at canvassing public opinion about what new approaches might and might not be acceptable.

Dame Marilyn Strathern, Professor of Social Anthropology at Cambridge University and chairwoman of the working party that produced the consultation paper, said:

"Behind every treatment is someone who has been a donor and the question we want to ask is how far we should go to encourage more people to donate."