All UK residents to be placed on the Organ Donor Register.

My name is Natalie Kerr, I am 34 years old and four years ago I was fortunate enough to receive a double lung transplant which saved my life from a rare lung disease. Currently three people a day die waiting for an organ transplant in the UK due to a shortage of donors! I propose we change the law.

There are currently around 10,000 people in the UK in need of an organ transplant and there simply aren't enough organs available. Could you imagine if this happened to one of your loved ones like it did to me, fortunately I was lucky and have had 4 extra amazing years with my two children, many people aren't so lucky! I propose that we change the law to automatically place all UK residents on the Organ Donor Register with a CHOICE to opt out. I strongly believe that this will save many lives!

Since 2007/08 organ donation rates have increased by 68% and transplant rates by 47% mainly through a strengthening of the donation infrastructure (increasing the number of specialist nurses, appointing clinical leads in hospitals and public awareness of the benefits of donation). We continue to support work to further increase donation and transplantation rates, particularly promoting collaborative working amongst organisations and raising awareness of donation in the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) population. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) works with a number of partners in the private, public and third sectors to promote organ donation, such as the Boots Advantage Card.

A new UK-wide NHS organ donor register was launched in July 2015. It enables any resident in the UK to record on the Register that they want to be a donor, they don’t want to be a donor or that they want to appoint a representative to make a decision about organ donation after their death. People can also add their name to the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR) via Government channels such as applying for a driving licence and paying car tax online. NHSBT continues work to improve access to the ODR, to encourage people to add their name to the ODR and most importantly to tell their family and friends that they wish to be a donor.

Only around 5000 people a year die in circumstances that would allow them to donate. An independent Organ Donation Taskforce examined the case for moving to an opt-out system in 2008. They recommended against it, concluding that whilst such a system might have the potential to deliver benefits, it also carried a significant risk of having the opposite effect and alienating some members of the population. The question of opt-out has been debated in Parliament on a number of occasions since and a number of changes have been made to make it easier to register as an organ donor.