Meeting of the Parliament 09 February 2016
I do not think that I have time—I am sorry.
Another contentious aspect of the bill is the role of the authorised investigating person, who is described in the policy memorandum as a health professional whose role would be
“to determine whether or not a deceased adult’s organs can lawfully be removed and used for transplantation.”
The member in charge of the bill envisages the specialist nurse in organ donation having the role of an AIP. However, NHSBT, the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics and the Law Society of Scotland all took a different view and saw a conflict of interest between the two roles.
It is clear that there are differing opinions about some major provisions of the bill as introduced. However, what influenced me more than anything was the opinions of people who are at the coalface of transplantation—people such as Professor Forsythe, transplant surgeon and lead clinician for organ donation in Scotland, and transplant nurses—who believe that the bill could have the opposite effect from what is intended. It could lead to a loss of public trust that, in the system, organs will be taken only when that is the wish of donors and their families, and an erosion of the concept of organ donation as a gift of life, which is often of great comfort to donor families at a time of grief. That is very important and must be thought through carefully before we contemplate moving to a new system.
I have no time to go into other aspects of the bill, but I am not persuaded that changing to the soft opt-out system of organ donation as proposed would in itself result in an increase in donations. However, I would like to see further enhancement of the on-going efforts to increase organ donation, and I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to a thorough consultation on further ways to increase donation and transplantation, including a soft opt-out system. That should be informed by the experience in Wales, which—as we know—started to implement its legislation last December. I urge the next Government to make that an early priority and, in light of the evidence presented to it, to proceed with legislation if that is what is indicated.
We will support the amendment at decision time.