THE Scottish Government is set to permit organ donations from dead adults to be used in transplants in the absence of express permission.
The move, hailed as a “change of heart" by campaigners, would bring Scotland into line with England and Wales where the 'soft opt-out' system has been widely credited with increasing the number of organ donations for those in need.
Scotland's Minister for Public Health Aileen Campbell, revealed the policy shift after crunch talks with Labour MSP Mark Griffin about his private members' Transplantation Bill, aimed at increasing the number of donor organs available for those in need of a potentially life-saving transplant.
Griffin said he was now "confident” that ministers would either take over the bill or not block his proposal, which he said was “driven” by the death of his Labour politician dad Francis Griffin who died days after a heart operation following a 10-year wait for an organ transplant,
Campbell, speaking to the Sunday Herald, gave the clearest indication yet from the Scottish Government that it would now throw its weight behind the reform after blocking a previous attempt to change the law in the last Parliament.
She said: “The Scottish Government will begin a consultation before the end of this year on measures to increase organ and tissue donation, including proposals for a soft opt-out system.
"Subject to the outcomes of that consultation, we will then move to take forward legislation.”
Griffin said he was hopeful that there is a “recognition we are now after the same thing” and that the plan could save lives and be seen as a flagship piece of legislation if passed by MSPs, along the lines of the smoking ban introduced in Scotland a decade ago.
The Central Scotland MSP believes the wait for a transplant “killed” his dad at the age of 47 – something that’s driving the MSP to push for a change in the law that he thinks will cut the number of lives lost due to a lack of available organ donations.
Griffin has spent months seeking Scottish Government support for the proposals and says he would be happy for Ministers to take over the bill, despite their failure to back the proposed legislation in the last parliament from the then Glasgow list Labour MSP, Anne McTaggart.
He is also hoping for further cross-party support for the bill, which was backed by senior SNP MSPs including Kenneth Gibson, Sandra White and Stewart Stevenson, but was still voted down by a margin of 59 to 56.
It was legislation that Griffin believes could have saved the life of his late dad Francis?, a Labour councillor in North Lanarkshire, who the MSP says had to wait so long for a donor, that by the time one was found, his body was so worn down by a gruelling drug treatment and “10 years of stress and strain” that it was too late for a transplant to be effective.
Last night, Griffin welcomed the backing from the Scottish Government and restated his offer to let ministers take over his private members' bill.
He said: "I'd like to think that the government will be in a position of wanting to take the bill forward or at least give it support and not oppose the plan I'm putting forward.
"After the talks with the minister I hope that we are working towards the same outcome.
"I'm hopeful that the Scottish Government now has had a change of heart and that there is now a recognition that we are after the same thing as this would be legislation that would bring huge health benefits to Scotland," he said.
"In Wales where this has been introduced there has been such a big increase in organ donations to save lives and obviously a big personal driver for me is what happened with my dad who had a 10-year wait for a transplant."
The government has said it will publish its own proposals for organ donations, although Griffin has said he would prepared to withdraw his own bill if it contained similar measures.
The British Medical Association and British Heart Foundation have supported a change in the law.
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