SCOTLAND is lagging behind other European nations by not allowing organ donations from dead adults to be used in transplants without express permission, SNP ministers have been warned.
Labour MSP Mark Griffin, whose father died days after a heart operation following a 10-year wait for an organ transplant, said if a government consultation does not deliver that change he will bring his own bill to parliament this year.
The stark warning came after France became the latest country to reverse its policy on organ donations so that all people become donors on their death unless they join an official register to opt out.
Griffin said that with hundreds of Scots on waiting lists for organ transplants, such a system, which also exists in Wales, was now urgently needed for Scotland.
Last night, Scotland's Public Health minister Aileen Campbell said there was a "presumption in favour" of bringing in an opt-out system as part of the government's consultation which ends in March.
Speaking to the Sunday Herald, she said: “Organ and tissue donation is one of the greatest gifts a person can give. Our consultation has a presumption in favour of a soft opt-out system, any changes to the current system must ensure there is no harm to the public perception of organ donation, trust in the NHS or the safety of transplantation."
However, ministers have failed to commit to introduce a system like that in France, where the law presumes consent for organs to be removed unless a patient's name is placed on a 'refusal register'.
Griffin said he had already prepared his own private members' bill if ministers attempted to bury or water down any proposed reform for Scotland at the end of the consultation.
The Central Scotland MSP warned that a failure to change the law would lead to further losses of life due to a chronic shortage of transplant donations. More than 530 patients in Scotland were waiting for a donor at the end of last year, according to figures published in December.
Griffin said Scotland was falling behind other European nations in an area of public health he claimed it could potentially lead the world on. Wales' introduction of the opt out resulted in a one-third increase in donors.
Griffin believes this system could have saved the life of his late dad Francis, a Labour councillor in North Lanarkshire, who the MSP says had to wait so long for a donor, that by the time one was found, his body was so worn down by a gruelling drug treatment that it was too late for a transplant to save him.
He said: "I would have preferred Scotland to lead the world on this issue so I hope we make some progress on it as soon as possible. There's already a strong body of evidence in support of changing the law."
The Scottish Government previously said ministers will "take forward" plans for an opt-out system for organ donations despite failure to back the proposed legislation in the last parliament put forward by the then Glasgow list Labour MSP, Anne McTaggart.
Griffin warned them he would ensure a fresh bill comes before parliament this year, if ministers either fail to back the change or delay it for longer than is necessary.
He said: "I'm giving the Government their place and have left them to carry out their consultation. I'll let them get on with and If they decide they want to go ahead with the bill they'll have my full support.
"But if they don't, I'll definitely put forward a bill on the issue as there are a large number of people on waiting lists."
The British Medical Association and British Heart Foundation have supported a change in the law.
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