UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said families should overcome the “fatal reluctance” to talk about organ donation as he launched a consultation into plans for an opt-out system.
According to NHS Blood and Transplant, around 6,500 people are currently waiting for a transplant in the UK, but in the past year 1,100 families decided not to allow organ donation because they were unsure or did not know whether their relatives would have wanted to donate.
However, Christian organisations have told Premier an opt-out system is not the answer to the problem.
Philippa Taylor from the Christian Medical Fellowship told Premier while most Christians believe organ donation is a good and honourable thing to do, they may have issues with the method of the proposed measures.
“I think it’s the way that this is being done and the assumption that everyone is donating without it being a deliberate decision,” she said.
“Therefore, it’s not necessarily a gift that is voluntarily offered.
“In countries where specialist nurses can talk to families about donation, then families are far more likely to agree to donating the organs of the deceased… we will be asking the Government to increase funding for specialist nurses for organ donation, as a more effective, as well as ethical, ways to proceed.”
The opt-out system was launched in Wales two years ago. Christian charity CARE said it is not confident the scheme would work in…
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