Next of kin can still prevent organ donation
A DECEASED person’s next of kin can prevent their organs being removed under the Government’s new opt-out laws for organ donation.
Health Minister Simon Harris will bring a memo to Cabinet this week to begin the process of introducing landmark opt-out organ donation legislation.
Under current laws, a next of kin has to give doctors permission to remove their loved one’s organs or tissue once a person has passed away. But under new rules a person would have to sign a register saying they did not want their organs removed or it would be taken that they have automatically given consent.
However, while consent is perceived as given under the new laws, a person’s next of kin will still be able to refuse the removal of organs.
The aim of Human Tissues Bill is to increase the number of organs available to doctors preforming transplant surgery. Ahead of the introduction of the opt-out system an awareness campaign will be rolled out, along with a public consultation process.
Minister Harris will also recommend the introduction of legislation around postmortems and retention of body following procedures.
There is a grey area around consent for post-mortems and a previous government report recommended the introduction of legislation in the area.
The move to introduce an opt-out system for organ donation has been in the pipeline since April last year when then Minister for Health Leo Varadkar used Organ Donor Awareness Week to announce that he was examining the introduction of legislation.
It has worked successfully in other countries. In 2015 Wales introduced the “soft opt-out” system which led to an immediate increase in organ donations.
At the beginning of this year, France introduced legislation which presumes consent for a deceased person’s organs to be removed, even if it goes against the wishes of the family.
Ireland already has one of the highest rates of donation in the world: 20.3 donors per million population.
All organ donors in this country are people who have died in hospital while on a ventilator. Death under these circumstances is determined by the absence of brain function.
Brain stem tests are carried out to determine this. Two doctors perform the tests. The medical staff performing the tests must be independent of the transplantation.
The Irish team taking part in the 21st World Transplant Games are due to return home to Ireland tomorrow after a hugely successful performance in Malaga.
The team will return home to Dublin airport this evening, bringing with them a large haul of medals which they won at the week-long games.
Their Ryanair flight is expected to land in Dublin airport at 17.30pm.
The Irish team of 27 athletes competed among close to 1,000 transplant recipients from more than 50 countries.