The parliamentary committee discussing organ donation tends to prefer the current opt-in system, according to the head of the government’s medical ethics body.
“Different proposals are being discussed by the Social Affairs Committee and the general feeling is we should not have an opt-out system as this could be seen as preying on people’s lack of awareness,” Pierre Mallia, who chairs the Health Ethics Committee, told Times of Malta.
Dr Mallia was reacting to the government’s White Paper on proposed laws for organ and tissue donation that was released for a two-month public consultation yesterday.
The document is asking the public to weigh in on whether people should be automatically considered organ donors, known as an opt-out system, or whether they should choose to be added to a list of registered donors – the opt-in system.
The consultative document is also putting forward different models for either of the two systems: a ‘hard’ and a ‘soft’ version of both.
This could be seen as preying on people’s lack of awareness
The hard version would see donors’ say as the final decision while softer versions would allow relatives to override the decision, something that has long irked medical professionals and donor support groups.
Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne said the public was also being asked whether they agreed with lowering the age of consent so that children as young as 12 would be allowed to become organ donors.
By law, those under 18 are considered minors and are automatically excluded from registering for an organ donor card.
The White Paper refers to the situation in Scotland where children aged 12 and over can make their own decisions and give the go ahead for their organs and tissue to be donated. However, their parents or guardians would have to sign off the procedure.
Mr Fearne said that, above all, the proposed review aimed to regularise organ donation because this was not covered by legislation that was wide enough.
The only provisions regularising the practice was a law on illegal organ trafficking and two legal notices on the standards and locations in which organs can be harvested.
The White Paper also seeks to regularise the issue of organ donor cards that are currently only handed out by an NGO support group for donors.