Top doctor wants more organ donors

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Everyone should be treated as a potential organ donor unless they explicitly ask to opt out of the system, the chief medical officer said on Tuesday.

Sir Liam Donaldson said reversing the current system would help tackle a chronic organ shortage that leads to the deaths of hundreds of patients on waiting lists each year.

"There are simply not enough organs donated to meet the need for transplants, with one person dying every day while waiting," he said. The number of people on the NHS donor register needed to treble to meet the growing demand.

"I believe we can only do this through changing the legislation to an opt-out system with proper regulation and safeguards," he added.

Under current laws, donors must explicitly "opt-in". The proposed changes would mean patients were presumed to have given their consent.

The government rejected similar proposals when it reformed the system in 2004. Opponents of "presumed consent" say it would be unethical for doctors to be given such powers.

They say apathy should not be interpreted as a desire to donate organs. Some patients oppose donation for religious and moral reasons.

Critics point to the public outrage sparked by the organ retention investigations at Bristol Royal Infirmary and Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool.