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Image source, NHS Blood and Transplant
What happens to your organs after you die depends on where you live in the UK. So how does the system work now, and what could change in the future?
The change has so far been rejected in England and Northern Ireland, relying instead on public awareness campaigns.
According to NHS Blood and Transplant, three people a day die in need of a donor in the UK, despite the number of registered donors being at an all-time high. 23.4 million 36% of the UK population is on the organ transplant register.
Opting out: What's happening in Scotland and Wales?
Scotland's planned “soft” opt-out system would mean that adult body parts could be used for transplant unless the person opts out. Family members or close relatives would be able to object to organ removal.
The so-called “deemed consent” system has been in place in Wales since December 2015, with 6% of the population choosing to opt out.
A year later, 39 of a total of 160 organ transplants in Wales had been carried out by deemed consent.
However, deemed consent does not apply to certain people, such as children or those who do not have the capacity to understand the system.
Law reform in the UK
Supporters said Scotland's move was a “landmark moment” and suggested the UK Government was signalling future changes in England.
Currently, in England and Northern Ireland, people NHS Organ Donor Register Alternatively, consent from family members or close friends must be obtained before organs can be used.
Responding to a newspaper campaign calling for a change to the rules across the UK, Downing Street said it was “closely monitoring the impact of policy changes in Wales and Scotland”.
“Max Johnson is nine years old and needs a new heart,” the Daily Mirror reported on its front page on Friday, adding that opting out “will give him and thousands of others a much better chance of living.”
Organ donation was not a major issue in this year's general election, but politicians have previously spoken out in support of opting out of organ donation.
Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson, argues that many people who want to donate forget to sign up.
But some Conservative MPs, including Welsh Conservative shadow health secretary Darren Millar, have criticised the opt-out policy, saying it is not a “panacea”.
Church leaders have also expressed concern about opting out, saying organ donation should be seen as a free gift, but most major religious groups, including Christians and Muslims, have said they support the principle of organ donation.
Why doesn't that happen in England and Northern Ireland?
Deemed consent has so far been rejected as a UK-wide policy.
In 2008, a task force set up by the Labour government rejected the opt-out for the time being, arguing it could alienate donors and undermine people's trust in doctors.
The department did not rule out the possibility of opting out, but instead proposed a £4.5 million awareness campaign, adding that families would receive emotional benefits from “choosing” to donate their deceased relatives' organs.
There are 23.4 million registered donors in the UK and the number of registered donors has increased every year since 2012 and is 20% higher than five years ago.
What does it feel like to wait?
Image source, Kevin Mashford
Kevin Mashford, 40, who waited a year for a life-saving heart transplant, believes the opt-out system is fairer.
“If people are willing to accept someone else's organs to save their own life, they should also be willing to donate their organs,” he said.
Mashford, an architect from Bristol, was born with a rare heart condition and in 2013, aged 36, he developed end-stage heart failure and was given just six months to live.
“The doctor asked me to meet with my family and get my affairs in order,” he said. “I spent that whole year at home waiting for news.”
He said he was hospitalized with multiple organ failure just six weeks before a donor was found and was saved “by a hair's breadth”.
“In a way I was lucky – they put me on the Europe-wide emergency list,” he said. According to the NHS, there were 6,402 people on the organ transplant waiting list as of December 2016.
Whether the system is opt-in or opt-out, Mashford urged people to tell their families their wishes. “Hospitals also have a moral obligation and if a mother doesn't know if her son is registered and objects to organ donation, it may be hard to question that,” he said.
Mashford later discovered that her heart donor was an avid cyclist and began cycling in his memory.
“After recovering, I cycled for seven minutes over seven days and never looked back. Since then, I've engraved the names of my donors on my helmet and taken part in many long-distance bike rides for charity.”
Are they more likely to donate?
The increase in donations follows efforts by celebrities and public health officials to encourage people to give, and donations have become more visible in popular culture.
The NHS is running a social media campaign and creating posters to encourage donations.
In 2015, it recruited Made in Chelsea's Jamie Laing and Olympic medallist Jade Jones to create their own dating profiles on the app Tinder, messaging users asking for donations.
Some may remember the BBC documentary “That's Life!”, which aired in the early 1980s and featured an appeal by the parents of two-year-old Ben Hardwick.
Waiting for a liver transplant made him a celebrity – he underwent the procedure but later died in hospital.
In 1999, Malorie Blackman's award-winning children's book, Pig Heart Boy, about a boy with heart failure, was adapted into a children's television show.
As Scotland's Public Health Secretary Eileen Campbell said this week, there is a “long-term cultural shift in attitudes” among Britons towards organ donation.
