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Organ donation in the UK today:

- Presently there are more than 10,000 people across the UK as a whole waiting for a transplant.

- In the UK 3 people die every day whilst waiting for a transplant.

- Although the number of people joining the donor register has increased by over 60,000 in the last two years, the number still remains the lowest in Europe at just 28%.

- The UK active transplant waiting list is increasing, and the ageing population and increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes are likely to exacerbate the shortage of available organs.

People often want to know if their religion approves of organ donation. Most major religions encourage organ donation. There is some very helpful information on organ donation and Religion here on the CHD-UK website: www.congenital-heart-defects.co.uk/TransplantationversesReligion.aspx

Why aren’t there enough organ donors in the UK?

.. - We know an overwhelming majority of people in the UK would like to donate their organs after death and help someone else to live. Unfortunately many of them do not get around to joining the organ donor register and discussing their wishes with loved ones.

- Repeated surveys by bodies such as UK Transplant indicate that up to 90% of British people are in favour of donating organs after their death but less than 28% have signed up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.

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The current ‘opt in’ system

- Currently, people need to register to express they want to donate their organs. This will then be confirmed by their loved ones after death. If people don’t join the register and don’t discuss their wishes with loved ones it can mean they don’t know what decision to take. That is why we would always encourage people to discuss their wishes with their loved ones.

- Organ Donor Register promotion creates awareness but does not solve the problem, increasing the number of people on the Organ Donor Register alone is not enough. With leading academics in agreement “the current policy [opt in], however reinforced, will not substantially increase the number of organs available” (Bird and Harris).

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What is opt out?

- Opt out, a system of presumed consent, means that people are considered to want to donate their organs upon death unless they say otherwise. Normally this means that everyone is placed on a register to donate their organs when they die and people have the option of removing themselves from it, or ‘opting out’ of the register if they do not wish to donate.

Hard vs soft opt out

- A soft opt out means that loved ones have the option to decline to donate organs after death. A hard opt out means loved ones don’t have that opportunity. The opting for life campaign supports a soft opt out which means only those that do want to donate do so.

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Support for opt out

- The evidence of a link between systems of presumed consent and increased organ donation is compelling. In 2003 a study “Presumed consent and other predictors of cadaveric organ donation in Europe , demonstrated that presumed consent was one of four variables which emerged as a significant predictor of cadaveric organ donation rates. In countries where Presumed Consent was a policy, there were a substantial number of additional organs available.

- In May 2010 the British Medical Journal published an analysis which showed that on even a conservative estimate an extra 2880 extra donors would have given organs under an opt out system. A number of other studies confirm that a move to presumed consent increases the organ donation rate by up to 30%.

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Will opt out completely solve the problem?

- A switch to presumed consent will mean there are more organs available for people waiting for a transplant. It will not on its own solve the problem of people dying whilst waiting for a transplant. We also need to make sure that there is adequate infrastructure in place to support this.

- Even with a “soft” system of Opt Out, discussions with family members are crucial and need to be conducted properly and professionally.

The situation in other countries

- Different systems of presumed consent for organ donation have already been introduced in Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy and Norway saving thousands of lives each year.

- Opt out has been hugely successful in other countries. When Belgium introduced the opt out system in 1986 its national rate of organ donation rose by 55% within five years. Belgians can take themselves off the Register at their local town hall, but only 2% have done so since the law was introduced. In Spain, where a similar system of opt-out exists, there are 35 donors per million population compared to just 15 in the UK. It is the only country that has witnessed a year on year increase in organ donation for the last ten years.

You can find out more about the case for opt out by downloading the Kidney Wales Time to Save Lives Report here