Minister for Health James Reilly is giving consideration to paying the expenses of living organ donors.
He told the Dáil this could potentially increase the number of such donors but would avoid “any financial incentives or benefits for potential donors”. There were “real expenses for those involved, such as lost time from work, that we must make good”.
The Health Service Executive service plan specifically allocated an extra €2.9 million to make organ transplantation more available, in particular to support live donors.
Opt-out system
Dr Reilly was speaking during a debate on the Oireachtas health committee's report on organ donation. The Government plans a soft opt-out system where consent to organ donation is presumed unless a person opts out. The system will give the family the final say.
The introduction of an opt- out system “is an integral element in changing our cultural attitude towards organ donation. We need to make organ donation the norm in Irish society so that it is the default position when people pass away in circumstances in which donation is a possibility,” said Dr Reilly.
Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne gave a poignant account about the organ donation of her brother-in-law Mario Byrne, killed in a hit-and-run incident 20 years ago. He was put on a life-support machine.
“I remember being in the waiting room where all of us had gathered when the consultant came in. He said Mario had a donor’s card which he had signed a long time ago. We were all so proud to think a young man of 20 had made a decision unknown to us all.
"When the doctor turned to my mother-in-law and father- in-law he said they could make the decision also if they did not feel they could go through with it. Mario's mother's words were that if Mario's organs would give life to somebody else then the doctor should take what he wanted."
Increase
Chairman of the health committee Jerry Buttimer highlighted the significant increase in organ donation in countries that changed to opt-out systems.
"Over a three-year period, after making the change to opt- out systems, Belgium saw its rate of organ donation increase by 100 per cent, while over the same period Singapore saw an increase of a massive 700 per cent."
