Organ donation
Heart
transplants offer the best chance of long term survival for
critically ill heart failure patients. We want the organ donation
system to be changed to ensure that there are more organ
donors available and help save lives.
A heart transplant is the only effective treatment
available for people with severe heart failure, when the condition cannot be
treated effectively with medication.
Between 120 and 150 heart transplants are carried out in the UK
every year. But many more could benefit if more
donations were available.
Unfortunately there is a
shortage of donor hearts for use in
transplantations across the UK. Although 90% of people say they
support organ donation, just 28% are on the NHS Organ Donor
Register.
Changing to an 'opt out'
system
We want to see a change in the law to
an opt out system, meaning that everyone would automatically be an
organ donor unless they chose not to be.
This change would encourage people to
talk to their families about their wishes and increase public
support for organ donation.
An opt out system must:
- enable people to easily opt out of organ
donation if they wish to
- contain safeguards to ensure that an
individual's wish to opt out is respected and honoured
- provide close relatives with final say to
refuse permission at the time of request.
If you are interested in becoming an
organ donor, you can sign up to the NHS Organ Donor
Register.
Find out about how you can take
action on the organ donation system.
Please read our full policy
statement for further information, or email us
at policy@bhf.org.uk.