Wales: Archbishop criticises organ donor plan

Archbishop Stack

The Archbishop of Cardiff, Most Rev George Stack, has condemned a Welsh Government proposal to introduce a 'presumed consent' policy on organ donation.

At present, organs cannot be removed from people who have died without their prior consent or the permission of next of kin. Under the new rule, those not wishing to donate organs will have to officially opt out of the scheme.

A consultation currently underway will reach its conclusion at the end of this month. The proposals, supported by Health Minister Lesley Griffiths, First Minister Carwyn Jones and Newport West Labour MP Paul Flynn, also have the backing of the Kidney Wales Foundation and the British Medical Association who say they will save lives.

But Archbishop Stack said the issue was an example of when there were “differing views of what constitutes the common good”. He said: "I agree with my fellow church leaders that our organs should be donated as a gift to others and not as a duty..."

He said: "Our bodies are not ‘an asset of the state’." .. “The dignity of the human person demands that our autonomy be respected in this profoundly important area.”

In September, during an address to the governing body of the Church in Wales the Anglican Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan questioned whether any state had the legitimate power to rule on this issue. He also claimed the policy would undermine people's trust in doctors and nurses.

He said: “Giving organs is the most generous act of self-giving imaginable, but it has to be a choice that is freely embraced, not something the state assumes. Put more crudely, it can turn volunteers into conscripts.”

Instead he called for more effort to be made to raise the profile of organ donation and to encourage people to join the organ donor register.

Conservative Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies has argued that international evidence shows that introducing presumed consent is not the best way of increasing the numbers of donors. The group Patient Concern has warned that under the proposed system “everyone would be turned into conscripts or conscientious objectors”.

In November, an American study published by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – one of the world’s leading medical institutions – concluded that an opt-out system was not the best way of solving the shortage of donors in the United States and raised “sticky” ethical issues.

While 13 European nations already have presumed consent legislation the study said: “It does not appear that by simply having presumed consent legislation on the books that donation rates will rise.”