He believes that simplifying the process of donating organs after death will augment the number of people who donate, pointing to Spain and France as successful examples.

“You can see that the amount of people that can be considered organ donors has increased significantly,” he said.

He noted that nearly 800 Quebecers are currently waiting for an organ donation.

“They’re living in uncertainty,” he said. “They’re living through painful and difficult health situations and they don’t know if they’ll be able to get the organ that they need in order to survive.”

As it stands, Quebec’s law for organ donations states that people can chose whether or not they want to donate their organs upon death.

Consent can be given by registering with the Regie de l’Assurance Maladie du Quebec’s (RAMQ) organ donor registry, signing the organ donor sticker on the back of one’s health insurance card or by registering with the Chambre des notaires du Québec.

According to Transplant Quebec, just a little more than one per cent of people who die in hospitals actually qualify to do so because of a failure to meet the legal and medical criteria.

For Fortin, presumed consent with an easy clause for opting out would make organ donations more easily available for those who need them, while also making Quebec a leader in organ donations worldwide.

He added that proposing the bill was also about launching a discussion about organ donations in Quebec.

“We have to do more, not less regarding organ donations,” he said. “The National Assembly is a great place to have the discussion. But we also need to hear what Quebecers think of the bill.”

Potential donors’ family members always have the last word as to whether or not they consent to donate their loved-one’s organs.

While presumed consent can help with the province’s lack of organ donors, he noted that hospital staff’s need to be better organized to speak with donor’s families to make sure they feel supported throughout the process.

“It’s already hard to lose a loved one,” he said. “But then, to also immediately consider that their organs might be retrieved, it’s an additional shock for families. Our hospitals need to be better equipped to accompany the families of accident victims.”

“To have professionals in our hospital system who are dedicated to doing this, who know how to accompany victims… is something that can help ensure that more people consent to organ donations,” he added.

Last Spring, Nova Scotia became the first North American jurisdiction to adopt a law for presumed consent, which will come into force next year. Alberta followed up with a similar bill, around a week ago.

Fortin noted that he and his staff had been contemplating the bill for the last couple of months and that Nova Scotia moving ahead with their own law provided him the push he needed.

According to Dr. Matthew Weiss, a Medical Director of Donation at Transplant Quebec, presumed consent would be a step in the right direction. However, it wouldn’t automatically solve the province’s lack of organ donors.

“Presumed consent is a little bit of a tricky subject,” he said.

He was happy to see that there’s interest in the matter and said that he’s in favour of any legislature that would improve the province’s organ donation system.

But a shift to presumed consent needs to be done carefully in a well-planned manner, noting that it has produced varying results depending on the jurisdictions that have put it in place, Weiss said.

“Some have improved their overall donation rates,” he said. “There are some studies that suggest that. Some say that it has hurt their donation rates and for a lot of countries it hasn’t changed things one way or another.”

He added that people involved in Quebec’s organ donation system need to have a sustained focus on the system as a whole because presumed consent is just the cherry on top of the sundae.

“Presumed consent is not going to be a magic bullet, one way or the other,” he said. “You’ve got to have the sundae first, before you put the cherry on top.”

He pointed to Nova Scotia, noting that he’s been working closely with the province, evaluating the impact of the legislation.

He explained that the difference between the law in Nova Scotia and Fortin’s proposition is that the province made numerous additional changes to its donation system on top of presumed consent.

For one, they strengthened their mandatory reform, ensuring that all potential donors are automatically referred to the Multi-Organ Transplant Program of Atlantic Canada.

They also invested funds in their information technology systems to accurately track data regarding organ donations.

Plus, the province granted additional funds to subsidize donation-focused physicians in hospitals across the province.

“All of those things together, are likely to make a much bigger impact than presumed consent alone,” he said.

“Presumed consent is fine,” he added. “But don’t spend a lot of time on it. There are a lot of other things you need to be focused on before worrying about presumed consent.”

Weiss said he’s looking forward to working with Quebec’s legislators to create a law that is the best for the province’s donation system, noting that there are a lot of ways to improve it.

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