‘Soft opt-out’ organ donation bill is passed

Boyle native Niall Kennedy, a dialysis patient and nurse, with his wife Helen at the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week 2023. The new bill provides a statutory framework for organ donation and transplant services. Picture: Andres Poveda

Irish people will be deemed to be organ donors unless they have registered their wish not to donate as a long-awaited bill passed the Oireachtas on Wednesday.

Details of the Human Tissue (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Bill 2022 were originally published by then-health minister Simon Harris in 2019 and followed on from a 2008 private members bill on the issue, which was introduced in 2008 by the late senator Fergal Quinn.

The bill provides a legislative framework for the retention and disposal of organs used in postmortem examinations. It will also provide a statutory framework for organ donation and transplant services.

The bill introduces a soft opt-out system of consent for organ donation.

Under this system, consent for organ donation will be deemed unless the person has, while alive, registered his or her wish not to become an organ donor after death.

This is a change from the current system where decisions on organ donation are the responsibility of the next-of-kin and assumes that an individual has a desire to donate their organs after their death unless they make a statement of objection to donation. A Government statement said that families will “continue to be consulted as part of a safe and respectful organ donation process”.

Increased funding

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly also announced increased funding of €1.6m in 2024 for organ donation and transplant services which will support the implementation of the early phases of the 2024-2026 Organ Donation Transplant Ireland’s strategic plan.

The aim is to increase organ availability for transplantation, reducing the existing transplant waiting list of 601 people, funding the expansion of the national potential donor audit, and promoting organ donation through the implementation of the Human Tissue Bill and a public awareness campaign.

Mr Donnelly thanked politicians across parties for their assistance in passing the bill.

He said 601 families were waiting for transplants and “this day is all about them”. He said the bill means more organs will be available and more lives will be saved.

Mr Donnelly also said the bill will put the families of babies whose remains had been mishandled “front and centre” and that it would make it against the law to inappropriately dispose of a baby’s remains.