The law on organ donation will be changed to a soft opt out system to increase the number of donors and save more lives.

The Scottish Government has announced it will legislate to bring in opt out before the end of the current parliament.

The historic announcement is a victory for the Evening Times Opt For Life campaign which has argued for the change for more than five years.

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Aileen Campbell, Minister for Public Health, announced today in Glasgow that the government is to introduce an opt-out donor system after 82% backed the move in a public consultation. 

She said work will now begin to introduce a Bill to Parliament.

Under the change, everyone will automatically be added to the organ donor register unless they have registered an objection but family members will still be consulted about the final decision.

Ms Campbell said this will ensure trust in the NHS and that a persons wishes are respected.

She said: “We should not forget that organ donation is a gift, which can only occur as a result of tragic circumstances and every donor and their family has made a selfless decision which has enabled others to live.”

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The Opt for Life campaign w as backed by several charities and a majority of MSPs who recognised the potential for lives to be saved.

More than 500 people are currently waiting for a transplant in Scotland.
We launched our Opt For Life campaign in November 2011 and were backed by major charities including the British Heart Foundation and the Kidney Federation as well as doctors leaders and a petition generated more than 20,000 signatures.

The move today comes after previous attempts to bring forward a Bill to change the law.

A bill was launched by Labour MSP Drew Smith on the back of the Evening Times campaign, which was later taken forward by Anne McTaggart and narrowly defeated.

Ms Campbell said Ms McTaggart’s bill was launched with “honourable intentions” but said it had flaws that the Government wanted to address with  its own Bill.

The announcement has been welcomed by Labour.

Mark Griffin MSP, who backed the Opt For Life, campaign said: “This long overdue change will increase the number of transplants that will take place and fundamentally it will save lives.

The SNP government pledged to launch its own consultation, which drew to a close in June.

The consultation was overwhelmingly in favour with 82% of the 800 responses backing opt out and a petition with more than 18,000 signatures also in support.

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Michael Hanlon, from Knightswood, was at Kelvingrove Museum for today’s announcement, months after receiving a heart transplant. The dad-of-three backed our campaign while he was on the critical list for new heart.

He said: “The Transplant meant everything. It was the only cure for what I had and I knew things were getting worse towards the end.

“There’s so many people still waiting in Scotland and I want to use what I went through to make people aware of just how important organ donation is.

"Organ donors are nothing short of heroes.”

The new system is likely to be modelled on the Welsh law, which was introduced in December 2015 and has already led to an increase in life-saving transplants.

Dozens of European countries have a form of presumed consent in place and evidence shows it is associated with higher donation rates and a shift in public attitudes, where organ donation is considered the norm.