All adults in England will be presumed to be organ donors unless they explicitly opt out under new law that could save 700 lives a year.
An opt-out system for organ donation will soon become law after it passed its last hurdle in Parliament.
The House of Lords gave approval to the new law, now in its final Parliamentary stages after it cleared the Commons last year.
The new legislation is set to be called Max’s and Keira’s Law, after heart transplant patient Max Johnson, 11, and his donor Keira Ball who saved his life after dying in a car crash aged nine in 2017..
There is a shortage of organ donors in the UK, and hundreds of people die whilst waiting for an organ.
The current organ donation system in England is an opt-in system.
But in October 2017, the prime minister announced that the government would introduce an opt-out consent system for organ donation in England.
The Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill was tabled by Labour MP, Geoffrey Robinson - the bill intends to amend the Human Tissue Act 2004 so that is someone who has not made a decision regarding organ donation during their life, the default position will be that consent will be deemed to have been given.
The measures on deemed consent within the bill will only apply in England.
In 2017, some 411 Britons died before the right donor could be found and more than 5,000 are currently on the waiting list in England alone. Wales introduced an opt-out system in 2015, while the Scottish government has also tabled legislation on the issue.
Peers made no changes to the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill during its committee stage in the House of Lords.
Speaking during the debate, former Tory health minister Lord O’Shaughnessy said the system of deemed consent would allow Britons to express a preference to not have their organs donated.
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