PM’s organ donor consent lifeline

GORDON Brown last night said he has not ruled out making “presumed consent” for organ donations — offering a lifeline to dozens across Oldham waiting for vital transplants.

Experts advising the Government have rejected plans for a system where individuals must opt out if they do not want to be on the register.

The Prime Minister said he would re-assess the situation after a campaign, launched yesterday by health secretary Alan Johnson was over.

Some £4.5m would be spent on a public education campaign aimed at signing up 20 million to the organ donor register by 2010, and 25 million by 2013. This would double the numbers currently on the register.

Uncertain

If it was not successful, Mr Brown said a switch to presumed consent was on the cards.

He added: “I’m not ruling out a further change in the law. We will revise this when we find out how successful the next stage of the campaign has been.”

Latest figures show 52 Oldhamers are waiting for kidneys, livers or lungs. But they may face an uncertain future because of a serious shortage of organs which has forced surgeons to use the body parts from drug addicts.

Nationally, between 2002 and 2007, 450 organs came from donors with a history of drug abuse.

An estimated 8,000 UK residents need an organ transplant but only 3,000 operations are carried out each year. Every year, a thousand patients die waiting for a transplant.