Last Tuesday, Nova Scotia’s Premier Stephen McNeil introduced new legislation that will make organ and tissue donations in the province automatic, a policy known as ‘presumed consent.’
Instead of filling out paperwork that comes with driver’s licenses or health cards, citizens will all be considered organ donors, though they and their family will have the choice to opt out. Minors and people unable to consent for themselves will be exempt.
This approach is already law in many European countries, but Nova Scotia is the first jurisdiction in North America to put forth legislation.
According to the Canadian Transplant Society, 90 per cent of Canadians support organ donation, but less than 20 per cent have actually made plans to donate. The little cards and forms that come with driver’s licenses are easily ignored, even by those with the best intentions.
Very few people like to contemplate the subject but donating organs or tissue is – if you’ll excuse the morbid pun – a no-brainer. Instead of relying on the diligence of Canadians and their empathy for their fellow citizens, the onus to physically register should be on people who wish to go to the grave fully-intact.
That’s not to disparage people who choose not to donate. Everyone has a right to determine what happens with their bodies, and families will still be consulted under Nova Scotia’s new system.
Presumed consent is by no means a silver bullet solution, and some countries with such laws actually have lower rates of donation than others with “opt-in” legislation, as it is just one aspect of a much larger issue.
Organ donations are incredibly time-sensitive and efficiently matching donors with recipients is far easier said than done. Presumed consent laws expand the pool of potential donors, but there still has to be infrastructure in place to get the organs to those that need them. It’s also extremely important to involve the donor’s families in the process and to ensure they understand what’s going to happen to their loved one.
Educating the public and allocating resources towards transplant coordination services are vital pieces to the puzzle and shouldn’t be neglected in discussions about consent and organ donation.
It will be interesting to see the effect presumed consent laws will have on organ donation in Nova Scotia and whether other jurisdictions follow suit with similar rules. For now though, a little bit of time and ink is all that’s needed to become a potential donor, and the human lives that could be saved with those organs are worth immeasurably more than that.
Caleb Nickerson
