Nova Scotia is now the gold standard for organ donations

Canadians consider themselves to be a caring, compassionate and giving nation, right? Then why did 242 people die often needless and painful deaths in this country while waiting for an organ donation in 2017? Why do similar numbers die for the same reason year in and year out?

Why, despite all the public-education blitzes and heartwarming stories of people whose lives are saved by someone’s generous commitment to donate, does this country have one of the lowest organ donation rates in the world?

And why do less than 20 per cent of Canadians take the few simple steps to register as organ donors when 90 per cent of them insist they favour organ donation? Don’t we care? Aren’t we compassionate? Can’t we give more?

Doctors and health-care advocates have spent years trying to answer these questions and boost the number of organ donors in Canada, yet always with limited results. There are enough suitable hearts, livers, kidneys and lungs that could be donated, the experts agree, if only more people had consented to give this priceless gift of life before they themselves passed away.

Fortunately, all that might change now the government of Nova Scotia has gone where no government in North America has gone before. The province’s legislature recently and unanimously passed a presumed consent law for organ donation.

While the concept might initially alarm some people, a closer look suggests it will prove an effective prescription for boosting organ donations. Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and her counterparts in other provinces should learn from Nova Scotia’s example.

Let’s be clear that Nova Scotia is not making organ donation mandatory after a suitable donor dies. Nor is the province taking away anyone’s choice about whether or not to donate.

Instead, the province is reversing the premise of choice. Until now, only those who had given prior consent to be organ donors were, after their deaths, considered as primary candidates for donating.

Under the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act, however, every adult in the province would be deemed a potential organ donor unless he or she previously opted out. So no one’s being forced to do anything. Anyone can say no.

Health teams would still need to speak with next of kin before donations could be done. People under the age of 19 or those without the ability to make a decision would only be considered as donors if a parent or guardian agreed.

The Nova Scotia government deserves applause for its decisive action and for delaying full implementation of the law for up to 18 months to ensure everyone knows what’s happening.

Beyond the care and thoughtfulness that informed this legislation are the welcome results it promises to bring. Organ donations are expected to rise by between 30 per cent and 50 per cent in the next five years. And because a single organ and tissue donation can save the lives of as many as eight people and improve the quality of life for 75 others a lot of people will reap immeasurable benefits.

The Ontario government has worked hard for years to increase the number of organ donors. Yet there are currently more than 1,500 people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant in this province.

Nova Scotia is showing us the way. It’s time for Ontario to begin moving to adopt a presumed consent law for organ donation. Nothing else will fix an urgent and persistent problem. Nothing else will prevent more people from dying when they could have been saved.