In Parliament I supported a private member’s bill introduced by my independent colleague Greg Piper, member for Lake Macquarie to protect donor organs needed for transplants. An organ transplant can keep someone who is seriously ill alive, give them new health, or enable them to be active. There are long waiting lists for organs because there are not enough donors and donors need to die in hospital in either intensive care or an emergency department so that their organs are preserved while working well.

But even if a donor is in hospital before they die, challenges arise because ante-mortem procedures that could determine if an organ is viable for donation or could improve the organ’s integrity for donation can’t proceed with the next of kin’s consent – they can only consent to procedures that provide a medical benefit to the patient. The bill provides circumstances when a next of kin can approve ante-mortem procedures to check or protect organs for donation and is expected to increase the number of organ donations available for transplant. My speech: HERE