MLCs this week welcome proposed law changes to create an ’opt-out’ system for organ donation.

The Human Transplant and Organ Donation Bill was given unanimous backing at the first-reading stage in Legislative Council on Tuesday.

Kate Lord-Brennan said the Bill, which has already been approved by the House of Keys, was the result of the work of Garff MHK Martyn Perkins and the ’tireless and dedicated’ work of Organ Donation Isle of Man, particularly Diane Taylor.

The MLC said she attended a service organised by Organ Donation IoM, held in St George’s Church to pay tribute to and remember donors and their families.

She said the service, as well as commemorating donors and how they had saved other lives, ’presented a further cause for reflection on the experience of donor and donor-recipient relatives, for which no words can do justice to here but that this Bill hopes to improve upon’.

The Bill will modernise the law on consent for the use of organs and other human tissues for transplant activities, following the UK in adopting an ’opt-out’ system of consent.

When the original Bill was being researched, Mrs Lord-Brennan said, it also became clear that the law on human tissue needed modernising, including the rules on post mortems and tissue retained for other purposes.

Mrs Lord Brennan said: ’As well as seeking to have the effects of increased availability of and access to organs for donation and transplants with an over-arching view to save lives and reduce distress on families, the bill deals with some technical updates, which like the main aspects of the bill have also involved professionals on and off-island, including Public Health, the Human Tissue Authority in the UK and DHSC medical and mortuary staff.’

She said the bill was very technical and pledged to obtain expert advice over any queries.

Bishop Peter Eagles welcomed the Bill. He said there would be ’significant pastoral implications’ within the bill, including assisting people in terms of bereavement.

’In addition, clearly to the significant medical complexities, a number of pastoral issues as well strike me as important,’ he said.

Mrs Lord-Brennan agreed, saying it would be ’very important’ to have the right support for people.

The Bill is known informally as ’Daniel’s Law’, in memory of Daniel Boyde, who lost his life in a car accident in 2007.

Daniel’s mum Diane Taylor gave permission for his organs to be donated, helping four other people, and since then has campaigned on organ donation and raised money to fund a memorial garden at Noble’s Hospital to commemorate all donors from the island.