Changesto transplant opt-out law mayexempt prisoners

PRISONERS and members of the armed forces should be exempt from a new optout donor system in Scotland, transplant leaders have suggested.

The Scottish Government is considering the findings of a consultation on a possible shift to a system of deemed consent.

It will mean that anyone who does not register a clear decision, will be treated as having no objection to being a donor.

NHS Blood and Transplant, which overseas the UK’s organ donor system, said there could be exemptions for anyone not ‘voluntarily resident’ in Scotland.

Under the Welsh system, which came into force on December 1, 2016, the law applies to anyone who has lived in Wales for more than 12 months.

However prisoners and members of the armed forces are exempt from the law and must have given ‘express consent’ for their organs to be donated. NHSBT would like to see this replicated in Scotland.

Speaking on behalf of NHSBT, assitant director Anthony Clarkson, said: “It is suggested that consideration be given to those not normally ‘voluntarily resident’ in Scotland such as prisoners or members of the armed forces being exempt from deemed authorisation.”

A total of 787 organisations and individuals have given permission for their responses to the government consultation to be published online.

The majority of responses are from members of the public, who were overwhelmingly in favour of the change.

The Evening Times has led a five-year campaign calling for the move, which is supported by major charities including the British Heart Foundation and Kidney Research UK.

Dr Harpreet Kohli, Chief Medical Officer for NHS Lanarkshire, voiced support for the change as part of a broader package of measures.

Professor Mark Strachan, of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh said moving to an opt-out transplant system would make a “small but real difference” to donation rates.

He said: “The available international evidence supports the fact that ‘opt out’ legislation is associated with increased rates of deceased or- gan donation. The higher rate of organ donation in ‘opt out’ jurisdictions persists even when the next of kin are still asked for their approval before retrieval (this is termed ‘soft’ opt out as opposed to ‘hard’ opt out when the relatives are not consulted).

“A higher rate of organ donation will reflect increased public awareness, societal attitudinal change to donation, and i mproved clinical infrastructure.”

However, Professor Strachan said there were other areas which could be improved to minimise the loss of potential organs for donation.

He said: “There are occasions where transplantation is unable to proceed because there is a lack of retrieval or a transplant surgical team, because they are already operating on other patients.

“Some emphasis should therefore be placed on identifying areas of improvement on the transplant side.”