MP calls for organ donor declaration

PEOPLE should be forced to say whether or not they want to donate their organs after death, the Commons heard yesterday.

Labour MP David Borrow said such a system was the "best way" of reducing the 1,000 avoidable deaths each year among patients waiting for a transplant.

Mr Borrow told MPs that just 27 per cent of the UK population was on the organ donation register – which currently requires people to give express consent – yet 60-90 per cent supported the principle of donation.

Under his Organ and Tissue Donation (Mandated Choice) Bill, introduced to the Commons yesterday, UK citizens would be required by law to make a declaration one way or the other about whether they wish their organs to be used after death.

However, Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik said he feared the measures could put people under "moral pressure to acquiesce, even if they do not feel comfortable with it".