Organ Donation Review

The Health and Social Security Panel is conducting a review into the Health Minister's plans to introduce a new opt-out organ donation system in Jersey.

The Minister lodged a draft law (the Draft Human Transplantation and Anatomy (Jersey) Law 201-) on the 27 February 2018. This will be considered by the States Assembly on 10 April 2018.

A copy of the draft Law can be found on the States Assembly website. You can find the draft Law by navigating to the "Propositions" part of the website.
 
Under the plans, most people in Jersey would be presumed to be willing to donate their organs on their death, unless they have signed up to a register stating that they do not want that to happen.

This system has already been adopted in a number of other jurisdictions including Wales. Scotland and England have also proposed similar opt-out systems.

A 2017 survey found that 14% of Jersey adults were currently on the Organ Donation Register.

Chairman of the Panel, Deputy Richard Renouf, said:

“Organ donors provide a vital service to society by saving and improving the lives of thousands of people each year, but organ donation is also a deeply emotive and personal issue. The Health Minister’s aim to increase the number of potential organ donors on the Island is laudable but we want to understand how a new opt-out system would work in practice and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for vulnerable people.”

Get involved 

The Panel is keen to ensure that the public’s views and opinions on an opt-out organ donation system are considered and addressed by the Health Minister.

The Panel invited the public to suggest questions, to ask the Health Minister about #organdonationjsy via a new social media campaign called #asktheministerjsy, before 12.00 on Wednesday 28 February 2018.

The Panel put the questions it recieved to the Health Minister at a public hearing on Monday 5 March at 2pm. A transcript of the hearing is available under "Transcripts" on the right hand side of this page.

​The review will:

• Asses the objectives in seeking to move from an opt-in to an opt-out system

• Evaluate the effectiveness of other opt-out systems in other jurisdictions and understand whether the same experience is likely to be replicated in Jersey

• Understand how the proposed new system would work in practice and comment on its suitability, including proposed arrangements to support family members of potential organ donors

• Ensure that the proposed new system has appropriate safeguards in place to protect vulnerable parties (e.g. families, children, migrant workers etc.)

• Understand how the proposed new system would be introduced and to understand what transitionary arrangements would be required