Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
One patient every week saved by our donor law
A CRUCIAL law change has led to enough extra organ donations for a transplant every week.
Wales brought in an “optout” system in December 2015, so a patient is assumed to want to be a donor when they die, unless they opt out. It resulted in 93 extra organs to change patients’ lives across the UK. Theresa May has launched a public consultation on the same law for England after a two-year Mirror campaign.
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said: “The sooner this happens the better. People are alive today due to this law change.”
Figures show 6,389 people were on the transplant waiting list at the end of March. But only 1,413 people who died in the past year donated their organs.