Nova Scotia already has one of the highest organ donation rates of any province in Canada, but officials say it is still not high enough to meet demand (AFP Photo/ PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU) |
Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's province of Nova Scotia has proposed a law that would presume all citizens consent to being organ donors unless they opt out, breaking new ground in North America.
Unveiled
Tuesday and assured of passage by the province's ruling Liberals, the bill
would flip the current practice in Nova Scotia of requiring signed consent
before a person's organs can be harvested after death.
Under the
proposed law, consent would be assumed unless a person has actively opted out.
The
province already has one of the highest organ donation rates in the country,
but officials said it is still not enough to meet demand.
Nova Scotia
Premier Stephen McNeil "was concerned that people on wait lists for these
life-saving transplants had passed away, and this seemed like a reasonable step
to try to address this issue," spokesman David Jackson told AFP.
It is
expected to take 18 months to work its way through the legislative process and
go into effect.
As early as
next week, locals will be given an opportunity to comment on the proposed law
at legislative committee hearings, while the province steps up public awareness
and medical training over the coming year "to increase capacity in the
system," he said.
"It'll
be a significant push to increase transplants."
Cindy Ryan,
who received two liver transplants since 2013 after a virus attacked her own,
was on hand for the bill's unveiling.
She told
local media the life-saving transplants allowed her to see her children
graduate school and start careers, marry her current husband and celebrate her
50th birthday.
"So
many changes in my life, so many things to be grateful for every day, and all
because someone I'll never have the honor to meet gave me the most generous
gift of all -- the gift of organ donation, the gift of life," she told
public broadcaster CBC.
"Recyle
yourself, together we live on," reads a tattoo on her arm.
Currently
in Nova Scotia, prospective donors carry wallet card identifying themselves as
such so hospitals can know they can harvest their organs when they die.
Other
countries including Belgium, France and Spain saw their respective donations
rise after adopting systems like the one being proposed for Nova Scotia.
On Monday,
Germany, which has about 10,000 patients awaiting organ transplants, became the
latest EU nation to consider adopting the principle of presumed consent.
Critics
warned that the practice amounts to turning patients into spare parts.
Juveniles
and persons unable to consent for themselves would be excluded from the Nova
Scotia law.
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