Meeting of the Parliament 09 February 2016
I pay tribute to Anne McTaggart. She and her staff have worked tirelessly to bring us to where we are today—debating organ donation in this chamber and raising the debate in the public domain.
I know—like all members of this Parliament—that Anne McTaggart is committed to seeing the necessary systems in place to increase organ donation. The circumstances in which someone becomes a donor, or requires a donation, are distressing. As such, it is vital that we are sensitive to the pain and the emotion of those who have lost loved ones, as well as those who are waiting for a lifeline.
Although we cannot support the bill that is before us today due to concerns with specific provisions, we are persuaded that there are merits in developing a workable soft opt-out system.
I thank the Health and Sport Committee for producing a well-considered stage 1 report. The Scottish Government supports the recommendations of the majority of the committee. As the committee heard, many professionals who currently work in the organ donation and transplantation field share our concerns about many aspects of the bill. That the doctors and specialist nurses who would have to work under the legislation have serious concerns about how it would work highlights, in my view, the significant risk in proceeding with the bill.