Maltese doctors wary of making organ donation mandatory

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This emerges from a study published in the Malta Medical Journal by psychologist Mary Anne Lauri and Prof. Joseph Zarb Adami on doctors’ attitudes towards organ donation.

At present organs can only be retrieved from a dead body only if permission from the family of the deceased is given. Even the presence of a donor card signed by the deceased does not give doctors an automatic right to remove organs from the body.

But countries like Spain, Italy and Belgium have introduced an “opt-out” system through which the only way to prevent the donation of organs is through a declaration made by the deceased when alive, stating his or her wish not to donate organs.

The law in these countries requires doctors to take organs from the dead body if they can be used for transplantation purposes even if they do not have the permission of the family.

Spain, which has a mandatory organ donation system, also has the highest rate of donated organs in Europe, followed by Belgium and France who have similar legislation.

But despite the clear advantages of this system in increasing the supply of organs, the five Maltese doctors cited in the study are wary of the implications of introducing a similar system in Malta.

James Debono is MaltaToday's chief reporter on environment, planning and land use issues, ...

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At the very least, they can make the wishes of the deceased take precedence over the family. If a person has an organ donor card, that should be enough. After all, isn't time of the essence when taking the organs? An opt-out system would be even better.

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Would the same relatives have negative reactions if their relative is offered an organ transplant to save his life? Donation should be mandatory and if one opts out, he would also be opting out of receiving an organ. It is easy to be egoistic when your own life is not at stake.

Maltese doctors wary of making organ donation mandatory

Doctors working closely with both organ donors as well as potential recipients are wary of changing Malta’s voluntary organ donation system, fearing negative reactions from relatives of the deceased.