Automatic organ donation considered

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A system of presumed consent - which operates in several other countries including Sweden and Austria - has proved controversial in the UK.

Chief Medical Officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, backs changing the law to drive up donation rates but some critics have argued against it.

Sir Liam's Scottish counterpart, Harry Burns, has said the public is not ready for a system of presumed consent.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced that the Organ Donation Taskforce - set up in 2006 to look at barriers to organ donation - would examine the issue in detail.

The taskforce will focus on the moral and medical issues around presumed consent, including whether the family of somebody who has died should be given the final say on organs for donation.

At present, the family has the final say unless a person has actively put themselves on the organ donor register or expressed their wishes. The family does not have the legal right to veto or overrule those wishes even if they disagree.

Mr Johnson said: "We know that around 8,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant but only 3,000 transplants are carried out each year. With more than 400 people dying every year waiting for a new kidney, heart, lung or liver, we need to do everything possible to increase organ donation.

"I want to see organ donation and transplant rates start to rise and match the rates seen in some other European countries, enabling us to save many more lives.

"The Chief Medical Officer's annual report helped put the idea of presumed consent into the public arena to be debated. This is a sensitive issue, but it is vital that all possible options for increasing the number of organs available for transplant are explored."