Life-saving organ bill to enter Holyrood at last
Supporters believe law would help to save those waiting
A BILL which aims to change Scotland’s transplant laws will be formally launched tomorrow at Holyrood.
Glasgow Labour MSP Anne McTaggart will present her Transplantation (Authorisation of Removal of Organs) Scotland Bill at the Scottish Parliament.
The bill proposes to introduce a soft opt-out system, where the default position is that everyone is considered a donor but individuals have the right to remove themselves from the register.
It was launched on the back of the Evening Times’ award-winning Opt for Life campaign. Major charities in- cluding the British Heart Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, the Scottish Kidney Federation and the Scottish Youth Parliament will attend the launch together with organ recipients and patients who are on the transplant list.
Support for the ‘soft’ opt-out system, where family are consulted, in Scotland is believed to be at 70 per cent.
Many transplant doctors are understood to be privately in favour of the change to help drive up donation rates.
Research by the Evening Times has indicated that more than half of MSPs are supportive.
Ms McTaggart said: “With three people dying every day across the UK while waiting for a transplant, it’s vital that we introduce a ‘soft opt-out system’ in order to increase the supply of available organs.”
Ewen Maclean, of the National Kidney Federation in Scotland, said: “As someone who is waiting for a transplant, I live with the real life consequences of the lack of available organs for transplant every day.
“Having looked at the success of ‘opt-out’ systems around the world, and seeing the Welsh Government bring forward similar legislation, I believe Anne’s proposals would lead to an increase in the supply of available organs for transplant.”
For Scotland alone, in 2013, 14 38 people died while waiting for an organ transplant.