Organ donation opt-out bill to return to Holyrood

Mark Griffin and his late father Francis - credit Andrew Cowan 

A bid to change the law to introduce an opt-out system for organ donations in Scotland is to be brought back to parliament just months after it was narrowly rejected by MSPs.

Labour MSP Mark Griffin is to reintroduce the Transplantation Bill, aimed at increasing the number of donor organs available for those in need of a potentially life-saving transplant, after it was rejected, with the Scottish Government opposing the change. 

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Griffin, whose dad died days after a heart operation following a 10-year wait for an organ transplant, said it would be a "failure" if the parliament did not change the law in the current parliament, as he confirmed he would bring a private members bill on the issue before MSPs as soon as possible. 

The change would bring in a 'soft opt-out' system which would allow parts of a dead adult’s body to be used in transplants in the absence of express permission.    

The Central Scotland MSP believes the wait for a transplant “killed” his dad at the age of 47 – something that’s driving the MSP to push for a change in the law that he thinks will cut the number of lives lost due to a lack of available organ donations.

However, Griffin said he was seeking Scottish Government support for the proposals and would be happy for ministers to take over the bill, despite their failure to back the proposed legislation from the then Glasgow list Labour MSP, Anne McTaggart.

He is also hoping for further cross party support for the bill, which was backed by senior SNP MSPs including Kenneth Gibson, Sandra White and Stewart Stevenson, but was still voted down by a margin of 59 to 56.

It was legislation that Griffin believes could have saved the life of his late dad Francis​, a Labour councillor in North Lanarkshire, who the MSP says had to wait so long for a donor, that by the time one was found, his body was so worn down by a gruelling drug treatment and “10 years of stress and strain” that it was too late for a transplant to be effective.

Griffin said:“My dad had a heart transplant operation in 2007, but it was 10 years after he was diagnosed with heart disease.

“He was kept going by drugs during the 10 years he had to wait and by the time he finally got a donor and was operated on, his body had been badly worn down by the years of stress and strain.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the 10-year wait is what killed him.       

“He had the operation, but a few days later, his body shut down.”

In the last parliament, the Scottish Government said the “measures set out in the bill could make things worse due to legal ambiguities and delays in decision-making processes” and lost donations, but added that a “workable” opt-out system should be considered.   

However, Griffin, in a move aimed at reassuring those with doubts about changing the law, said there was a “lock in the process”, to ensure that transplants will never come from those who have specifically voiced their objections to being donors.    

Griffin went on to claim that an opt-out system introduced in Wales had been widely credited with increasing the number of organ donations for those in need.

He said: “The evidence in Wales shows a sharp increase in the number of organs available and there’s no doubt that it would increase the number in Scotland.”

Full interview with Mark Griffin to appear on Holyrood website on Monday