Vote to ‘Change the Law for Life’ on organ donors
NEARLY 400 people have died in Greater Manchester in the past 10 years while waiting for an organ transplant, new figures show, with MPs set to vote on a bill to change donation laws.
Figures show there were 386 deaths of people on the active or suspended transplant list in the region between 2007/08 and 2016/17, including 36 in 2016/17.
On February 23, Geoffrey Robinson MP will present a Private Members’ Bill in the House of Commons to change organ donation laws in England to an opt-out system, fol- lowing the M.E.N.’s sister paper the Mirror’s ‘Change the Law for Life’ campaign.
Currently, people have to opt in to become a donor after their death.
The law change would mean they will automatically be considered a donor unless they have previously decided to opt-out.
Family members could still overrule this should they wish.
Wales has already moved to an opt-out system, with Scotland set to follow.
Max Johnson, nine, from Winsford, Cheshire, became the face of the Mirror’s campaign when he waited, seriously-ill, for a heart transplant at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. He underwent a transplant last summer and is now doing well – and is calling for MPs to vote to change the law next week.
He said: “Politicians have the chance to change the law to help all the other kids who I left behind in hospital still waiting for a transplant.
“Please, please, please ask your MP to do it.”
Max’s mum, Emma, will be in London to see the vote.
She said: “In 2016, 470 people, including 14 children, died while on the transplant list or died after they had been taken off the list, because they had become too ill for surgery.
“In the same period, 460 organs suitable for transplant were not used because of lack of consent. We must change the law.” There were around 300 people waiting for a transplant in Greater Manchester as of August 2017, including 19 in Leigh and 17 in Gorton.
Between 2012/13 and 2016/17, 807 people in Greater Manchester received transplants, with around 200 dead donors giving organs during the same period.
Overall, as of August 2017, there were 898,000 people in the area who were on the NHS Organ Donor Register.
In Oldham West and Royton, 25,000 people were on the register, just 32 per cent of the adult population, while it was also 32pc in Manchester Central – 40,000 people.
In Wales, where an opt-out system was introduced in December 2015, 65pc of the public in Wales had opted in or taken no action to optout by June 2016.
The opt-out system has the backing of the British Medical Association (BMA), which has campaigned for the change for many years.
BMA council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said it ‘has the potential to save many lives.’
Prime Minister Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have both backed a change in the law.
Mr Corbyn said: “The gift of life is the most precious thing we can give. “We need change now. “So next Friday I urge all MPs from all parties to come together and back Geoffrey Robinson’s Private Members’ Bill.”