Organ Donation In The UK

How would a system of 'presumed consent' affect organ donation in the UK?

Presumed consent is very much in the forefront of people's thoughts in the UK. Everybody has different opinions on this. As far as Transplants in Mind is concerned, we have to stay on the fence slightly, because some of our members are for and some are against. If we go on to the opt-out situation, or presumed consent, then hopefully, we will still carry on asking the next of kin. Because this is where opt-out, presumed consent actually falls down, when next of kin are not asked and organs are taken. This happened in France a few years ago. Corneas were taken from a child without the parents' consent, and organ donation went down dramatically for about six years. It would be much better if we could just carry on the way we are, but increase education so that people can make an educated, informed decision, whether they wish to become a potential donor or not. And this is one of the reasons that Transplants in Mind have agreed to do this video and also have agreed to carry on doing National Transplant Week each year, so that the education will get out into the public about organ donation for transplantation.

Is there a shortage of donations?

There is a desperate shortage of donors at the moment. We have over eight thousand people waiting on the organ donor waiting list. The majority of those are kidney patients, but there are hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, and pancreas all waiting. We are losing over four hundred people a year who are not getting their organs in time and at least one hundred and seventy of those are children.

Who pays for the cost of a donation?

The NHS pays for all organ donation for transplantation. It is run by the UK Transplant Health Authority which is a government body and the government pays for UK transplant. All organ donation for transplantation is paid for by the government.

Could my organs go to private patients?

All organs that are donated are tissue-typed and blood-typed. The person who is in greatest need of the organ will be given it. The majority of these will be people who are on the major organ donor waiting list in an HS hospital. There are very few transplant patients who are waiting, who are private patients. They will not be given any preferential treatment over organs. The only organ or all organs are given out to people who are in the most need, and not who can afford them, because it is illegal in this country to actually buy or sell organs.

What is National Transplant Week?

Next year will be the 18th year that National Transplant Week has actually been held. It's a week where we try to promote organ donation for transplantation in every way we possibly can; by television, newspapers, articles, magazines, and anything that we can to bring organ donation to the public so that they can have an informed decision whether they wish to sign on to the organ donor register, and register their wishes to become a donor.

Why is education about organ donation important?

It's very important to educate people about organ donation for transplantation because there are so many people waiting for organs, and you never know when it's going to hit you. It hits every walk of life, it can touch every single person you can possibly think of: the rich to the very, very poor, the old to the very, very young, and when it actually affects your family it's like a pebble into a stream - it just ripples out and affects so many people. This is what's so wonderful about organ donation for transplantation, when somebody receives an organ, it doesn't just affect them, it affects their working life, it affects their home life, it affects their family, everything.

If everyone in the UK signed up, would it solve the shortage of donors?

If everybody in the country signed up for the organ donor register, at the moment we have 14.5 million people on the register. There is over 60 million people in this country. We've still got a long way to go to get everybody to sign onto the organ donor register, but even if they did, it's still a case of waiting for somebody to become a potential donor. Also, don't forget that we now have seatbelts, we have health and safety regulations, and we have crash helmets. To become a potential donor you have to die in a certain way. The majority of donors are brainstem dead, but how many brainstem dead people do you get every week, where the waiting list for organ donation keeps rising because of people's way of life. Where the ethnic minorities are concerned, it's a case of their diets having changed, so because of their diet change it's affected their kidneys and their pancreas, which causes diabetes which causes kidney failure. To answer the question, if everybody signed on the organ donor register, will it solve the whole problem? No, it wouldn't solve the whole problem, but it would go a very long way to helping those people who are waiting for organs.

Has any one saved a life through Transplants in Mind?

Yes, we have actually. With the donor bus, we have a London double-decker bus that goes around the country promoting organ donation for transplantation. We have actually had somebody sign up onto the organ donor register on the bus, and we found out that two weeks later that person had actually become a donor, and they have helped five people with their organs. If they hadn't come to the bus and they hadn't signed up, they might not have been a potential donor. Other stories that I know about, I know of somebody who died in the States in a car accident. She was dead at the scene but her family donated her tissue and she actually helped seventy-four different people. We know of people who have been on dialysis and they have actually had their kidneys, and now have gone off and got two degrees from University, works with young people with learning difficulties and who are difficult youths, works with them. She never would have done any of that if she hadn't had her kidney because she would have been on dialysis.

How do transplants affect people's lives?

I know people who have actually had families because they've been able to have a transplant. They wouldn't have been able to have a family before the transplant, but now I know somebody that actually has two children and is now going off to the world transplant games later on this month, in August. They're going to Thailand and she's competing there. She's not taking the children with her, but she's competing there. She wouldn't be able to that if it wasn't for the case of somebody donating her a kidney.

How are donor families affected?

I know quite a few donor families and they are just amazing, absolutely amazing. We get a lot of them actually come and help us with the donor bus when we go around the country, because they feel so strongly it's helped them through their bereavement. I know one of them who's son died at 14 years old and they donated his kidneys, heart and his lungs. This family have been helping and working with Transplants In Mind ever since. It helps them, because of the tragedy of a person dying like that, a cerebral haemorrhage, it's something that happens spontaneous, it is not something that you can actually come along with like an illness, it happens straight away. So they've got that tragedy but what they've said is because that tragedy has happened to them and they have been able to help other people that has helped them with their bereavement of their child.

How does registring as a doner effect the illegal buying and selling of organs?

By going on the organ donor register you are registering your wishes that anything that can be used, you are willing for it to be used. The more people we have on the organ donor register, and the more people we can get, then there are going to be less people waiting for organs - which means there are going to be less people going down the road desperation of going aboard and buying and selling organs.