{"id":1475,"date":"2016-02-15T11:55:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T11:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/?p=1475"},"modified":"2016-03-01T15:49:29","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T15:49:29","slug":"organ-donation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/?p=1475","title":{"rendered":"Organ donation bill voted down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday 15th<\/sup> February 2016<\/p>\n

ORGAN DONATION BILL VOTED DOWN\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

To the bitter disappointment of patients and their families, last week the Scottish Government voted down the Organ Donation Bill brought forward by Labour MSP Anne McTaggart.<\/p>\n

For those of you unfamiliar with the Bill, it proposed to introduced a \u2018soft-opt out\u2019 system for organ donation. Its overarching aim was to increase the number of organs and tissue made available for transplantation in Scotland.<\/p>\n

As it stands, demand for organs far outstrips the number available. As a result, lives are being lost and families are suffering needlessly with 500 people currently on the waiting list.<\/p>\n

Those in favour of the Bill have pointed to the example of Spain which introduced \u2018soft opt-out\u2019 system in 1979 and now has the highest rate of donations from deceased donors in Europe.<\/p>\n

As one would expect, when it comes to an emotive issue such as this, there are sincere and strongly held views on both sides of the debate. And I have complete respect for those who voted against the Bill as a matter of conscience. \u00a0However, itbeggar\u2019s belief, that according to John Mason MSP, a number of his colleagues voted against the Bill for political reasons.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, there were over twenty MSPs in the debating chamber who publicly backed a soft opt-out system for organ donation previously, but subsequently voted against the Bill without explanation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Understandably, many of those fighting to change the law have been left furious. Expectations were raised only to be dashed at the last minute.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Government has said that in the new Parliament it will consult on the development of a new \u2018soft opt-out\u2019 system. However, this could mean we have to wait years before any progress is made.\u00a0 Any technical problems with the Bill could have been addressed as it progressed through Parliament in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One campaigner speaking on behalf of patients and families expressed their frustration with the Scottish Government\u2019s decision when he said: \u201cThe Government seem to be playing politics with people\u2019s lives. By the time we get a new law people will have died\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday 15th February 2016 ORGAN DONATION BILL VOTED DOWN\u00a0 To the bitter disappointment of patients and their families, last week the Scottish Government voted down the Organ Donation Bill brought forward by Labour MSP Anne McTaggart. For those of you unfamiliar with the Bill, it proposed to introduced a \u2018soft-opt out\u2019 system for organ donation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holyrood-message"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1489,"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions\/1489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duncanmcneil.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}