Opt-out organ donation: organs and tissues excluded from the new system
Department of Health and Social Care
Opened: 29 April 2019
Closes: 22 July 2019
This consultation is to ask you if the government is excluding the right organs and tissues from opt-out organ donation. We would like you to answer five questions about what you think should happen.
The government recently passed a law to change the rules for organ donation in England from 2020. The law introduced a system commonly called “opt-out” or “deemed consent”.
From 2020, everyone in England over the age of 18 will be considered to be in favour of donating their organs and tissue after death unless they:
- have said they do not want to donate (opted out)
- have appointed someone to decide for them after death
- are in an excluded group
When the law was passing through Parliament, the government agreed that the law would only apply to routine transplants, and not novel or rare transplants.
The government proposes that novel or rare transplants will still require express consent. This means you or someone representing you must explicitly give permission for your organs or tissues to be donated for novel or rare transplants. Such transplants also cover what is called Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP). This is when tissues, cells and genes are manipulated in a laboratory for treatment of a disease or injury. Some of the tissues and cells come from deceased donors.
This consultation is to ask you if the government is excluding the right organs and tissues. They would like you to answer five questions about what you think should happen.