Organ Donation Taskforce - Second Taskforce Report

Second Taskforce Report

At the time of launch of the First taskforce report, the UK Prime Minister called for a review of the legislation over consent for organ donation.

The ODTF carried out an investigation and published its second report ‘The potential impact of an opt out system for organ donation in the UK’ on 17 November 2008

This report provided an in-depth examination of the potential impact of changing to an opt out system of consent for organ donation. It concluded that an opt out system should not be implemented in the UK at the current time.

The Taskforce concluded that there was no convincing evidence that a change to opt out consent would deliver significant increases in the number of donated organs. It felt that such a system has the potential to undermine the concept of donation as a gift, to erode trust in NHS professionals and the Government and negatively impact on organ donation numbers. It concluded a change in consent system would be costly to implement.

It also felt that an opt out consent system would distract attention away from the need to improve the systems and infrastructure around organ donation in the UK and the need to improve awareness and understanding of organ donation.

In putting together the report, the Taskforce had discussions and engagement with academics, health professionals, members of the public, organ recipients, families of donors and faith leaders. The report details the considerable volume of evidence the ODTF considered before coming to its conclusions.