Only three per cent of Maltese registered as organ donors

There are currently 14,216 people registered as organ donors, which equates to approximately three per cent of the population.

The Malta Independent on Sunday spoke to Michel Camilleri who has recently launched a petition to the Ministry of Health to introduce an opt-out organ donation scheme in Malta.

At present, to become an organ donor in Malta a person has to register their intent, a system known as opt-in organ donation. In addition, the next of kin of a deceased person who is not a registered donor may be approached to say whether they consent to the donation taking place.

However, as Michel points out, people are often too busy to actually register as donors, and the families of someone who has died are often too distraught to make the decision. The result is viable organs going to waste while people are waiting for a transplant.

He says that most people fail to go through the actual step of registration, even if they want to donate their organs after they have died at the time of their death.

According to the Ministry of Health, there are 90 patients waiting for kidneys, 15 patients for corneas, five for livers and two for lungs. The number of patients waiting for a heart was still being ascertained at the time of going to print.

Michel was very interested to read about the opt-out donation scheme that is to be introduced in England and subsequently launched the petition to introduce a similar scheme in Malta. With a close relative suffering from kidney disease, he explains that "these people go through hell." He also noted that only about 18 per cent of the people on the transplant list for a kidney received one.

It is important to remember that a kidney can be donated if one has two healthy kidneys, as a person can live with just one healthy kidney. Therefore these numbers must take family donations into consideration.

Under the opt-out scheme, people will be presumed to be willing to donate organs unless they have specifically recorded their decision not to be: the system is also known as 'presumed consent'. Opt-out legislative systems are shown to increase the effective rates of consent for donation as a consequence of the default effect.

Michel has approached the Ministry of Health as well as the Office of the President but so far has only received acknowledgements. "We are now so much into recycling and what better way of giving hope and a better life is there than making use of organs that are perfectly healthy and only inaccessible because a form has not been filled in," he said.

The opt-out system will be in place in England by 2020, assuming that Parliament approves 'Max's Law'. A similar opt-out system has been in place in Wales since 2015. 'Max's Law' is named after a 10-year-old who was saved by a heart transplant.

In Germany, a country that uses an opt-in system like Malta, the organ donation consent rate is 12 per cent, while Austria, a country with a very similar culture and economic development but which uses an opt-out system, has a consent rate of 99.98 per cent.

Michel makes it clear that signing the petition does not place any decision on the individual, it just simply makes more people aware and, as a result, improves the chances of the opt-out system becoming a reality. In addition, the opt-out system does not force anyone to become an organ donor, Michel explains.

 

 

from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2DG1oox
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