Minister changes track on separate register for organ donors
25 February 2004 

Health Minister Annette King yesterday blocked calls for a dedicated national organ and tissue donor register - two years after seeking such a register herself.

The minister announced yesterday the Government would establish a national organ donation agency from July.

It would be run by Auckland District Health Board and would have $450,000 each year on top of funding already available for the donor programme.

But Ms King rejected a select committee call for a new national organ donor registry to replace the current system based on drivers' licences.

She said the Government wanted the committee to examine the effectiveness, cost, and other details of such a register first.

"There are a number of significant problems associated with donor registries, including cost, likely uptake, and ethical problems," she said.

"We don't agree to it at this time".

Instead she said Parliament's health select committee should look at the issues involved during its consideration of the Human Tissue Act, for which a discussion paper will be released next month.

But in April 2002, Ms King herself asked her officials to consider introducing a database accessible by hospitals, but much more comprehensive than the drivers licence database that is run by the Land Transport Safety Authority.

"We don't have a good database and it does restrict our ability to find suitable donors," she said at the time.

Yesterday, Ms King told a media briefing at Parliament that overseas registers did not necessarily increase donation rates.

Asked whether New Zealand could use a system from some American states, where indications on drivers' licences are used, but only after a potential donor has signed a formally-witnessed consent form, Ms King said: "That's the sort of thing I think needs to be looked at".

"If it's an informed consent process, then how do we make sure that informed consent agreement is actioned at the time of death?"

There had to be a better way to do things than to simply tick a box on the drivers' licence application, because in many cases the patient thought they had given consent, but after their death, distraught family members could disagree.

"It does require a pretty good discussion and consultation with New Zealanders," she said.

There would be an opportunity for this in next month's release of a review of human tissue and tissue-based therapies.

The review was sparked by the revelation two years ago that Auckland's Greenlane Hospital had been keeping patients' hearts without consent.

Changes to the Human Tissue Act, taking account of this consultation, would be introduced later this year.

Ms King said New Zealanders had been sensitised to consent issues since the Cartwright inquiry into the "unfortunate experiment" where some women were not told they were being used in a medical experiment which meant a proportion of them missed out on treatment despite having potentially dangerous cervical smears.

Ms King said she, herself, was listed as a potential organ donor, and had told her family that she was happy to have any useful organs harvested.

At the end of the day, it was up to donors to talk through the issue with their family, so that there was no intervention by relatives when doctors asked for organs.