Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill

Lord Elder Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Friday 23rd November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Elder (Lab)]

My Lords, I rise to support the Bill and, in doing so, congratulate my noble friend Lord Hunt on his role in this and Geoffrey Robinson, in another place with other colleagues, for introducing a timely and important Bill.

I start by declaring something of an interest. As many of you will know, I am a recipient of a heart transplant myself. I was reflecting recently that, when I had my heart transplant by the excellent team led by John Dark at the Freeman in Newcastle, all those years ago, they said that the half-life of a transplant patient was about seven and a half years and I would be very lucky to last 30. There was the important rider of a new drug being introduced and, with a bit of luck, that would improve things. I do not know what has happened but, as that was now slightly over 30 years ago, I am particularly grateful for developing technologies in this area.

All I have done and been able to do over the past 30 years has been the by-product of a decision of either an individual or their next of kin, or both, to allow someone they did not know to benefit from the tragedy that they were facing from the loss, often sudden, of a loved one. So I come to this debate knowing and understanding the benefits for the patient or the recipient of a transplant, but of course I am very conscious that every recipient is one part of a process that involves either an individual making a commitment to the transplant programme by saying that, should their life be cut short, their organs should be used to help others to live—an act of great generosity—or, if not them by them, by their next of kin or others, so that others could benefit from their tragedy.

I appreciate that a register is important, but nothing is quite as important, in my view, as speaking to friends and relatives, and having an understanding of what they want and how to do it. This can mean either that the donor has made clear directly their view that their organs should be used or that the next of kin takes that view themselves. It can also mean people taking a decision in the most difficult of circumstances. For many, the decision will be sought at the point when all they can think of is the need to mourn, to cope, and to help their family and friends to do likewise. The danger is that if they take the entirely understandable decision to leave the decision about transplant for later, it will not be possible, because it is too late. I pay tribute, as others have done, to the members of the transplant teams—the co-ordinators and specialist nurses—who have the crucial and difficult task of talking to families, on both sides of the process, and taking them through the fraught times they are facing. They are vital to the success of the scheme.

Of course, as a recipient of a transplant, I support the Bill. It is not because it will transform everything—it will not—but because it is another essential step in making the process of transplantation more accepted, better understood and more common than it is at the moment. This may mean not just this change of policy; I hope it will not be the end but the continuing of a serious attempt to have a public, open discussion and argument about the importance, understanding and benefits of signing up to the transplant process, and all that that means for individuals, their families and friends.

What the Bill does not mean is a change to the position whereby, if anyone has made clear their wishes not to have any part of the transplant programme, they should not be overturned. But it opens the way for those who have not made their views known, still to be eligible, with safeguards, for their organs to be used in the event of their untimely death. It should therefore increase the number of transplants possible and reduce the number of otherwise avoidable deaths from the lack of available organs. For that it has to be supported. As I say, it will not end all problems, but it will be a step change in the movement to what some of us think would be a more rational use of the bodies we have been given after these bodies have ceased to be of use to us. I wish the Bill well.