Permission of family still needed with new ‘opt out’ organ donation system

THE expressed permission of the family of the deceased will still be needed when a new “opt-out” system for organ donation is introduced, Health Minister James Reilly said.

“No organ removal will ever happen against the wishes of a family,” said Dr Reilly as he launched Organ Donor Week.

The Programme for Government includes an opt-out system of organ donation but Dr Reilly said he was anxious to ensure that further consultations took place as preparation of the legislation was progressed.

“I do want to make it clear today that I see the opt-out proposal as merely a way of starting a conversation. The expressed permission of the family is crucial and will remain crucial,” he said.

He said the opt-out system was to ensure that as many people as possible benefited from organ donation by making it easier for a conversation on the issue to take place.

“It is very important that we have transplant coordinators available in hospitals to have that very difficult conversation,” he said.

Asked if the necessary finance to have the transplant co-ordinators in hospitals would be provided, the Minister said it would.

Dr Reilly said he was also concerned about the marked difference in hospitals having organs for donation.

Irish Kidney Association chief executive Mark Murphy said last year was not a good year for organ donation with just 58 deceased donors, the biggest one year decline on record.

Those donors and their families gave the gift of life with 151 organs transplanted to other people. The organs transplanted included 98 kidneys, 38 livers, three hearts, four lungs and eight pancreases. “There were 90 less transplants conducted in 2010, compared to 2009. This highlights the fragility of transplantation because of its almost exclusive reliance on deceased organ donation,” he said.

Mr Murphy said he was delighted to report an outstanding number of organ transplants during the first 12 weeks of 2011 with 66 organs from 23 deceased donors.

“If that trend continues we could be again reporting a record year for organ donation and transplantation,” he said.

There are more than 650 people in Ireland awaiting life-saving organ transplants and more than 2,600 are enjoying extended life as a result of receiving organ transplants.

RTÉ’s Joe Duffy, who has championed the plight of people with organ failure over the years, fronts this year’s Organ Donor Awareness Week.

It is now possible to store a donor card, the ‘ecard’ on Smart mobile phones.

* www.ika.ie.