Organ Donor Awareness week runs this month from 20 – 27 April, and you will have received a poster advertising this awareness event with your copy of the April IPU Review. In this article, Sinéad McCool, Head of Professional Services (Acting) at the IPU, provides an overview of organ donation in Ireland at present, as well as an introduction to the Human Tissues Bill, which will impact on organ donation and transplantation.
Making the decision to donate organs is the most important gift we can ever give. Donation greatly enhances, and in many cases, saves the life of the person who receives the transplanted organ. Ireland has one of the highest rates of donation in the world: 20.3 donors per million of population.
Organs that can be donated in Ireland are:
In 2023 there were 95 deceased organ donors and 30 living kidney organ donors in Ireland. The number of transplants carried out are outlined in Table 1.
Table 1: 2023 transplant figures
There is a national team of Donor Coordinators from Organ Donation Transplant Ireland who manage the overall process of donation and retrieval in Ireland. They work closely to support families at the time of their loss and throughout the journey of donation. There are specialist organ donation personnel based in the hospital groups nationally to assist with organ donation. Organ donation and transplant surgery are well established in Ireland. There are three specialist transplant centres in Ireland:
Currently to become an organ donor in Ireland you must give your consent by:
The Organ Donor Card is an ‘ice-breaker’ to encourage a family conversation about organ donation — this is why it has a space for the signature of the ‘Next-of-Kin.’ You can also use the Organ Donor Card smartphone app to send a message to your family. All ways of creating a reminder are shown in Image 1. This will continue in tandem with other measures which are outlined in this article.
Image 1: Reminders of wish to be a donor
On 21 February 2024, the Human Tissue Bill completed its passage through the Oireachtas, and it was subsequently signed into law by the President Michael D. Higgins, on 28 February. It is now referred to as the Human Tissue Act. The Human Tissue Act covers many areas and the one we are focussing on in this article is in relation to practice around organ donation and transplantation.
There are many aspects to the Human Tissue Act that need preparatory work and infrastructure put in place before the Act can commence. So, nothing has changed yet in relation to practice around organ donation in hospitals and no dates have been announced for implementation.
An official online register will be set-up to record the details of those who choose not to be considered a potential organ donor and register this decision. Figure 1 illustrates how this will change the approach for family consent. There is no register for those who choose to be an organ donor.
“ There are approximately 600 people currently active on the transplant waiting list with the majority (approximately 500) of these awaiting a kidney.”
Figure 1: How the new Human Tissue Act will affect the consent process for organ donation
Non-directed altruistic donation will be introduced when the new Act is commenced. To date, if someone wanted to donate a kidney to a stranger (altruistically), they had to go to Belfast or abroad.
Key message:
The role of family in giving final approval for organ donation to go ahead will remain in the new system. The Irish Kidney Association’s core message of ‘Don’t leave your loved ones in doubt’, remains as relevant as before.
IPU supports Organ Donor Awareness Week
The IPU is supporting Organ Donor Awareness week with the inclusion of posters in this issue of the IPU Review. Information will also be available at the upcoming IPU Conference on 27 April.
For more information and to order posters and donor cards, contact the Irish Kidney Association on 01 620 5306 or at info@ika.ie.
Sinéad Mc Cool
MPSI, Head of Professional Services (Acting), IPU
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