Group wants to reverse organ rules — everybody donates unless they opt out

WINNIPEG – A group of transplant patients and their families wants the Manitoba government to change the rules so that people don’t have to sign up in order to donate their organs after death.

Instead, the group wants to switch to a system called “presumed consent,” meaning everyone would be considered an organ donor unless they sign up to specifically opt out.

The idea is to save more lives by getting more organ donations, with the group called Manitobans for Presumed Consent noting the province has the lowest rates in Canada.

Just one per cent of Manitobans have signed up for the online organ donation registry.

Spokesman Bryan Dyck says the presumed consent system could increase the donation rate by 25 to 30 per cent, adding that one organ donor can potentially save up to eight lives.

Health Minister Sharon Blady has met with the group and applauds their efforts, but says the first step is education.

“With a lack on consensus from all of the players, I’m hesitant to move forward,” she says. “But I’m always willing to work with folks that want to get the organ donation rate up.”

One of those lobbying for the change is Allexis Siebrecht, a 12-year-old girl who made headlines last year with her plea for an organ donor as she raced against time in the late stages of liver failure.

She eventually got a new liver from a deceased donor, and although she still needs regular checkups, she’s living the energetic life of a pre-teen, going tobogganing and rock climbing.

“It will help another person get up and start moving again,” she says of the presumed consent idea. “They’ll get to run around like me.”

Earlier this year, the government did make some changes in an effort to increase the pool of donors.

Before the change, only people declared brain dead with their heart still beating were able to donate. Now, patients whose hearts stop beating and have no chance of recovery can be donors.

Last December, the Canadian Institute for Health Information said only 10 per cent of eligible organs from deceased donors were actually transplanted into patients who need them in Manitoba.

(CJOB, CTV Winnipeg)