A pro-organ donation lobby group is urging people to give their views on proposed changes to the law on human tissue use.

The Health Ministry last week released a discussion document reviewing issues such as consent, the safety of tissue-based therapies, and organ and tissue donation.

Among proposals raised in the 150-page document is one suggesting that a person's organs should be available for donation at death unless that person had expressly forbidden it.

GiveLife co-ordinator Andy Tookey said yesterday that the document affected every New Zealander, but he was worried that too few people knew about it.

"The legislation that will arise from it will determine what happens to your body after you die," he said.

"It has an incredible amount of stuff that will be put forward as legislation and my concern is that nobody knows about it."

The document is available on the ministry's website (www.moh.govt.nz).

The ministry is holding public consultation meetings in Wellington on April 27, Christchurch on April 29, Dunedin on April 30 and Auckland on May 6. Registration for the meetings close next Monday.

Mr Tookey said he was obviously in favour of organ donation, but he was more concerned about the democratic process working as fully as possible.

The ministry is reviewing the regulation of human tissue and tissue-based therapies, with a view to developing new rules.

It said the present regulations were not comprehensive and parts of them were outdated.

Submissions close on June 4.

- NZPA