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Ontario NDP Introduces Organ Donor Bill Which Presumes Consent of all Dying
TORONTO, February 16, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In 1999, LifeSiteNews.com reported that Ontario's Conservative government was planning to introduce high-pressure organ donation to meet the shortage of human body parts for transplants. In April of the same year, the House of Commons Health Committee, an all-party committee, recommended that greater pressure be put on Canadians to agree to have their organs removed immediately after death for transplant into others.
This Thursday, seven years later, Ontario New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos is introducing a Private Member's bill that proposes making organ donation automatic for everyone unless they have previously 'opted out' of the system.
Kormos said the plan "will help ease the organ donation crisis".
Private member's bills are rarely passed but in this case the governing Liberal party's Health Minister, George Smitherman, is also backing the bill. Smitherman stated, "There obviously needs to be a public discussion about this, and that's why I'm supportive of the bill at least for that reason ... (but) I don't think everybody's ready for that."
