Northern Ireland organ donation law reform is becoming increasingly urgent

Organ transplants are a miracle of modern science.

They are a relatively new feature of medicine. It is little more than 50 years since the first heart transplant operation took place in the UK.

Such operations were an extraordinary breakthrough in human development. Earlier this year we reported on a man who had his heart replaced more than three decades ago, yet has now celebrated his 90th birthday.

There are so many happy stories about transplants. A few years ago we carried a story about how the liver transplant recipient Philip Cairnduff became what is believed to have been the first such beneficiary to have run the Belfast marathon (his liver had suddenly failed in Africa in 2004).

But transplants cannot take place without donors. Tragically, donors have often died suddenly and unexpectedly (older people who die of natural causes typically have organs that are not suitable for transplants).

The world is a far safer place than it was only decades ago, with for example fewer road accidents than previously, and that means that the supply of organs is far from plentiful. This then leads to an agonising wait for potential recipients.

We report today on the father of a boy who needs a new heart, Daithi MacGabhann from Belfast, who is campaigning for Stormont to reform organ donation legislation. Daithi has been waiting over three years.

The proposed new legislation would mean all adults become potential donors unless they specifically opt out. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where the opt-out system is not already in place.

This is an increasingly important piece of legislation. Crucially, it retains the right of people to opt out of donation. But in the absence of such an expressed opposition, an organ cane be used to save someone else’s life. Transplants need to happen very fast after an organ becomes available and this change in presumption will help to minimise delays.

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