Organ Donation Law: Much More Than You Wanted to Know
Dáil Éireann (the main house of the Irish parliament) has recently finished considering a major change to the law on organ donation. The government’s Human Tissue Bill is the first attempt to systematise the legal approach to organ transplantation in Ireland, and it received cross-party support.
Irish law is behind the curve when it comes to organ donation, with a substantially underdeveloped legal infrastructure for transplantation. The government’s response is, essentially, to copy existing legislation in other Western countries. This is supposed to be a selling point: as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly put it, “the Bill will bring the State in line with international best practice”.
Much of what the rest of the world does is just common sense; but the proposed approach is also a significant missed opportunity. “Best practice” from other Western nations has failed, creating a major international shortage of organs, particularly kidneys. Ireland’s archaic transplantation laws could have been an occasion for the government to design a new approach, focussing on the best tool we have for increasing kidney transplants: living donation. A bolder and more courageous attempt would end the organ shortage.
Dozens of Irish people die each year while waiting for an organ. Across Europe, the annual shortage (the difference between the number of people added to waiting lists and the number of people who get a transplant) amounts to nearly 10,000 organs. 1 Policymakers are aware that there are too few donor organs and too few people receiving transplants. But not all organs are equally represented.
