The government is leaning close to having a voluntary register listing people who want to be organ donors and those who do not, Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne said this afternoon.

Speaking during a consultation meeting with experts, a week before the consultation period on organ donations comes to an end, Mr Fearne said that the register would be legally binding but one would be able to change his or her decision.

When people who were not on the register were declared dead, their next of kin would be consulted on organ donation.

The consultation document had proposed allowing  minors as young as 14 to become donors. The consensus seemed to be setting to be to set the donation age at 16, Mr Fearne said.

He said the government was also looking  into ways to clamp down on any possible organ trafficking as well as signing up as donors for financial gain.

Mater Dei clinical director Joseph Zarb Adami noted that according to a study carried out in 2012 by an organ transplant NGO, 94 per cent of people felt comfortable giving up their organs.