Australia: National organ donation body wary of opt-out system

[Clark]

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4314299.htm

National organ donation body wary of opt-out system


Katherine Gregory


[/size]ELEANOR HALL: Well, there's been another call for Australia to introduce an 'opt-out' organ donation model, to try and get rates up to international standards.
[/size]That would cast every Australian as an organ donor, unless they specifically ask to take themselves off the register.Making organ donation a default position is just one idea put forward in an independent review into organ donation. But several organ donation representatives say implementing an opt-out model would do nothing to fix the real problems with Australia's organ donation system. As Katherine Gregory reports.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: Allan Turner lost his 7-year-old daughter Zaidee to a brain aneurism 10 years ago. He says her sudden death was a nightmare.
[/size]ALLAN TURNER: We could not think that this was actually happening to our daughter, and she was going to die.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: Mr Turner says Zaidee's organs helped save the lives of seven people, including other children.She was the only Victorian child in 2004 to be an organ donor.
[/size]ALLAN TURNER: Zaidee's wishes were to be a donor and the family wishes were to be an organ and tissue donor family. And from that, hopefully they're living a better life.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: Allan Turner set up the Zaidee Rainbow Foundation to advocate for change. Mr Turner is pushing for the Federal Government to consider an 'opt-out' model - which would mean every adult is a default organ donor unless they choose not to be.
[/size]ALLAN TURNER: And I think it's time that we may have this conversation in our community in Australia.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: But, the national body for organ donation, Donate Life, is against it.CEO Yael Cass says organ donation should continue to be based on a system of informed consent.
[/size]YAEL CASS: And it's based really on an ethical basis that Australians have the right to make a choice about whether they want to be an organ and tissue donor.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: Australia's organ donation rates are low - 16.5 donors per million people. In 2013 it was ranked 19th out of developed countries. Some of those countries ahead such as Spain, Croatia and Czech Republic have the opt-out model.But Ms Cass believes an opt-out system would not have impact on the rankings.
[/size]YAEL CASS: They're leading countries internationally because they have been implementing the reform program that we have adopted in Australia for much longer than what we have.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: Ms Cass says, since Australia introduced a similar government funded national reform program in 2009, rates have increased by 54 per cent. Brian Myerson from the advocacy body Share Life says these statistics are misleading, since any increase comes off a low base.
[/size]BRIAN MYERSON: Actual numbers just show we've increased by four donors per million in seven years.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: Earlier this year, the Assistant Federal Health Minister, Fiona Nash ordered an independent audit of DonateLife, after claims that $250 million in funding had been wasted. The review was due last month.Mr Myerson says advocates for an 'opt-out' model need to consider what he believes are the key problems holding back organ donation in Australia.He says there needs to be more trained organ donor specialists in hospitals.
[/size]BRIAN MYERSON: Medically following them through to ensure if they are likely to become a possible donor that all the medical treatment of them taking place so that those possible donors become actual donors.And at the same time working with the families really effectively through the whole process so we have a far higher consent rate.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: William Isdale is an ethics and law researcher with the University of Queensland.He agrees with Mr Myerson, but says the independent review should consider the opt-out model.
[/size]WILLIAM ISDALE: It nudges people towards the option that is socially desirable, but it still leaves them with the freedom to choose, and opt-out is ethically justifiable if you allow it.
[/size]KATHERINE GREGORY: Allan Turner also holds out hope for the review.
[/size]ALLAN TURNER: Oh, I think, you know, everywhere I go and people I talk to support the opt-out. They just think it's a no brainer to think that, you know, if you die and you're in a position to save another person's life, you should donate.
[/size]ELEANOR HALL: That's Allan Turner from the Zaidee Rainbow Foundation, ending Katherine Gregory's report.