NZ lags in organ donation

17 Setember 2003

Courtesy of www.NZOOM.com

The government has been asked to intervene to increase the number of organ donors.
Parliament's health select committee on Wednesday heard New Zealand's donor rate of nine per million people is one of the poorest in the Western world.
Australia and the United States have twice that number.
Grandmother Suzanne Callander told the select committee she was happy to give 25% of her liver in an operation which saved her one-year-old grandson's life.
Before Suzanne's gift, her grandson had been one of 400 New Zealanders waiting for an organ last year. Only 38 became available.
The select committee heard that under current law the hospital superintendent owns a patient's body once they die. They may authorise organ donation if it is what the patient wanted.
But if the family, even a distant relative, objects then the donation will not go ahead. That applies whether or not the person's driver licence declares them to be a donor.
"A person can leave written instructions as to the disposal of his or her body but the executors are not bound to carry out the directions," said constitutional law expert Sir Geoffrey Palmer.
The select committee was asked for government money to bankroll an education campaign in order to shine a torch on the issue.
Supporters also want debate about whether a patient's donor status should be clear the moment they walk into a hospital.