Organ donation opt-out system is no longer on the table
Health Minister says plans revised after discussions with experts and church leaders
Plans to shift organ donation to an "opt-out" system are no longer being considered, despite the health minister backing a private member’s bill for that system last year.
Currently, people must ‘opt in’ by registering to donate their organs for transplants after they die. An ‘opt-out’ system means anyone older than 16 would be presumed to have given consent to donate their organs unless they have opted out.
The debate to introduce an ‘opt-out’ system has been on the table for years but always ran into opposition.
It was revived last year when Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo, who in 2017 donated one of his kidneys to a stranger, filed a private members' bill in parliament to shift to an opt-out system.
Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela endorsed that bill, saying “Not only do I support the bill, but I am also happy to second it."
But the plan appears to have fallen out of favour.
The government is now launching a public consultation on organ donation, but the 'opt out' idea does not feature in it.
And on Saturday the health minister made it crystal clear that the new law will not introduce such a system.
“Following two years of discussions with experts, we will not be going for an ‘opt-out’ system,” Abela said, adding that he and Bartolo had spoken to both health experts and also church leaders in Malta and Gozo.
“We saw that going for an ‘opt-out’ system will not increase the number of donations, and we want organ donations, like blood donations, to remain a free gesture, and be done out of a person’s free will.”
Instead, the public consultation will push for a framework based on what is known as the Donation After Circulatory Death (DCD), which Abela said could increase the number of transplants by up to 50 per cent.
Currently, organs can only be retrieved once patients are certified as being brain dead. The proposed change would allow donations from patients whose hearts have stopped beating.
The public consultation will be open for two months.
"Any death brings a tragedy, but this change in our law means that from a tragedy, we can help and save more lives," Abela said.
Also present at the conference was Bartolo, who said that the discussions with experts made it clear that the best means forward for organ donations was to keep 'opt-in' and to introduce DCD.
The Church had previously opposed an opt-out system, making it clear that their position had not changed since the idea was first proposed back in 2015.
However, the Church has said it is in favour of the introduction of DCD.