GORDON Brown has swung behind a "presumed consent" system of organ donation in a bid to help the thousands of sick patients whose lives depend on a transplant.
Join the NHS organ donor register by phoning the Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400
In a major victory for Scotland on Sunday's campaign to change the laws governing organ transplants, the Prime Minister has declared he believes the time is right to move to an 'opt-out' model on donations.
Under such a scheme, only those people who explicitly say they do not want their organs removed after their death will not be considered as donors.
Presently, donors have to 'opt in' by carrying consent cards or doctors have to gain the permission of relatives.
Brown's dramatic announcement now looks set to pave the way for reform once an independent taskforce studying the reform reports back later this year.
The Prime Minister said: "A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery and the limits imposed by our current system of consent."
He added: "Many of us will have friends and family members who have benefited from transplant surgery or, tragically, who have endured the agonising wait for a life-saving organ that did not become available in time. That is an avoidable human tragedy we can and must address.
"A different consent system, more like the one used in Spain, could serve to increase donation levels significantly."
The Spanish scheme has led to a greater number of organ donors per head of population than anywhere else in the world, figures show.
The Prime Minister's announcement comes six months after Scotland on Sunday launched a campaign to move to a presumed consent law, after shocking figures showed that waiting lists were growing in Scotland, forcing desperately ill people to search abroad in the hope of an available organ.
Parents also told of their agonising wait for their sick children who needed a new organ quickly to save their lives.
A total of 9,000 patients across Britain – 600 of them in Scotland – are currently languishing on waiting lists. It is estimated that 1,000 people a year in Britain die while waiting for a new heart, lung, liver or kidney which could save their life.
In the wake of Scotland on Sunday's campaign, Scotland's leading politicians, including First Minister Alex Salmond and Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, and the country's leading doctor, chief medical officer Dr Harry Burns all declared that they too backed the reforms.
Last night, Brown's stance was backed across the political spectrum in Scotland and England.
Sturgeon said: "I want to repeat that I am sympathetic towards the idea of introducing a system of presumed consent".
Labour MSP Lord Foulkes, who has put forward a private members' bill at both the Scottish Parliament and the House of Lords to introduce a new law on presumed consent, said: "I know people who would not be here today if it weren't for a transplant. My aim now is to try and speed this process up and get presumed consent in as quickly as possible."
The law change also received support last night from Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer for England. He said: "We have 1,000 or more patients dying on the waiting list each year, and there is a lot of suppressed demand, with doctors not even referring patients on to the list because there is no hope for them. That is a lot of patients dying."
But the Prime Minister was attacked by patient groups who said that a presumed consent law would strip patients of their right to choose what to do with their own bodies.
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association charity, said: "We don't think a private decision, which is a matter of individual conscience, should be taken by the state."
Brown's call comes as an independent taskforce will recommend major changes to the way hospitals organise donations in order to boost take-up this week.
The report, written by an independent panel, will call on ministers to recruit hundreds more 'transplant co-ordinators' to liaise with families and medics.
It is hoped these measures alone will lead to another 120 transplants taking place every year in Scotland, a 50% increase.
Mother's agony transformed donor debateGARETH ROSE
Life on hold: Gillian MacCormick, whose wait for a donor organ we highlighted in our campaigning reports, below. Photograph: Julie Howden
IT WAS the heartbreaking story of Gillian MacCormick that launched Scotland on Sunday's campaign for an opt-out system for organ donors. It was the only thing that could save her life and an estimated 500 other Scots every year.
A change in the law, as signalled today by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, would mean everyone is considered a potential donor unless they object in their lifetime.
MacCormick, a 39-year-old mother-of-two from Livingston, West Lothian, suffered from an inherited autoimmune disease and her liver was beginning to shut down. She was too weak to do anything but sit in her home and wait. Without a transplant, she would die.
Like thousands of people, MacCormick had been waiting longer than doctors hoped for the life-saving operation. With the waiting list growing, her chances of survival were, at best, uncertain.
"I am trying to live as normal a life as possible," she told SoS. "It would be easy to curl up in a ball and give up. The prospect of a transplant is frightening. It's a major operation and I don't know if it's going to work. But I am only 39 and I have a long way to go yet, hopefully. My kids need their mum.
"I definitely think we should be going down the same route as the countries that have introduced presumed consent. It's a shame that so many people want to donate their organs but just don't ever get round to it. There is such a shortage of organs, something needs to be done."
Senior doctors and politicians became embroiled in a row that had the power to change not only MacCormick's future but those of the 7,317 patients on the UK's growing organ waiting list.
A week before our campaign was launched on July 22 last year, Sir Liam Donaldson, England's Chief Medical Officer, recommended a change in the law to halt the organ crisis by introducing an 'opt-out' system under which it is presumed everyone will donate unless they expressly object during their lifetime.
But his Scottish counterpart, Harry Burns, decided against, prompting the Labour MSP George Foulkes to attempt to introduce the move through the Holyrood parliament and the House of Lords.
It also emerged that a total of 6,414 patients, or almost 90% of the NHS transplant list, were awaiting a kidney.
UK Transplant, the organisation which ensures organs donated for transplant are fairly matched and allocated to patients, revealed that their desperation was leading to people travelling abroad to spend thousands of pounds on risky operations in Asia and Africa. Since 2000, 170 British patients, including 22 Scots, had gone abroad for the surgery.
Other heart-breaking human stories ensured the issue was kept in the public eye. As the mother of a teenager who died in a tragic fire, Christine Phillips approached the debate from the position of a grief-stricken relative who had to decide whether her daughter's organs could be used.
Phillips backed the campaign and spoke of her difficult decision after 18-year-old Josie died in a fire when a lit candle started a fatal blaze in her home in Fife, along with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Lawrence Vaughan.
The teenager's organs saved the lives of four strangers.
Her mother said: "I think it is so good that she was able to help so many people and she would have been happy to know that she did. She carried a donor card, although I did not know this, so it is what she would have wanted."
Sheila McLean, director of the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University and chair of the Committee of Inquiry into Retention of Organs at Post-Mortem, was next to back the campaign and went even further, calling for the introduction of an opt-out system where organs could be taken even if relatives objected.
As public opinion in favour of the opt-out system swelled there was a U-turn from Dr Burns, who said he was now "completely behind" a change in the law.
In October the Scottish National Party met in Aviemore for its annual conference with organ donations high on the list of topics for debate, and with Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon said to be seriously considering the idea.
At the same time, Nicola Hughan, 25, made a heartfelt plea for a change in the law to presumed consent - her daughter Aimee had endured an agonising eight-month wait for a life-saving liver transplant.
She said: "There are a lot of people out there who would love to donate organs but have not let their relations know or have not put their names on the list. There's no hassle involved because people can opt out if they want."
Then in November, her hopes, and those of thousands like her, received a boost following talks between senior health officials from Scotland and England.
UK Health Secretary Alan Johnson said he was "sympathetic" to the idea of a change in the law to an opt-out system of presumed consent, laying the groundwork for today's announcement by the Prime Minister. For the campaigners, including this newspaper, it was the end of a long road - and the start of a new journey of hope.
• To read more stories about organ donation, click here.