The Nationalist Party on Wednesday called on the government to prioritise a private member's bill to shift to an "opt-out" organ donation system.
The Bill was presented to the Speaker by Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo on Wednesday. Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela has said he supports the bill and is willing to second it.
“The government can take the Bill to Parliament immediately,” opposition whip Robert Cutajar said.
While the government controls what is usually debated and brought to parliament, the Opposition can only present a motion or a Bill to the House once every six months, Cutajar said.
Should the Bill eventually become law, anyone older than 16 would be presumed to have given consent to donate their organs unless they would have opted out.
Currently, people need to register to donate their organs for transplants after they die.
Standing besides Bartolo as he presented the Bill to the Speaker, Cutajar said that what the Bill was proposing was not partisan and the government should show maturity and fast track it.
Bartolo, who previously donated one of his kidneys to a stranger, said going for an "opt-out" system could save lives.
“You need to be in that situation (waiting for an organ transplant) to understand the significance of the Bill,” Bartolo said.
He said that 360 people in Malta are on dialysis machines because of failing kidneys. The government pays €24,000 yearly for each patient.
Many of those people can be given a new lease of life with a transplant, Bartolo said.
“We hear a lot about Malta’s generosity and it's now time to prove it”
This is the second time that an opt-out system has been proposed.
The idea was first proposed and then discarded following a public consultation exercise in 2015 that had found that only 8% of respondents had favoured some form of opt-out system.
The Church had also opposed the proposal which said that organ donations should remain a free decision of the donors.
Several countries, including Spain, Singapore, Austria and Belgium, have adopted an opt-out system.