CAMPAIGNERS have warned patients will die as a result of a Scottish Government decision to shelve the introduction of an opt-out organ donation system in Scotland.
Ministers said they were no longer pursuing the idea because there was no consensus among the Scottish Transplant Group (STG), its medical and patient advisers, that it would help increase donation rates.
Wales is the first country in the UK where people will be presumed to have consented for their organs to be donated unless they opt out. The policy is due to come into force in 2015.
Doctors and patients have campaigned for the SNP administration to follow suit and slash the list of nearly 700 people awaiting a transplant.
But launching a new strategy on organ donation yesterday, the Government said it would await an evaluation of the Wales opt-out before making any decision.
STG chairman Professor John Fosythe said in a January memo that of five unnamed members who responded to questions about the push to opt-out only one supported the move.
The current UK system relies on people signing up to a voluntary scheme and carrying a donor card.
It is known that Welsh ministers are keen to drive up low transplant rates and felt the new scheme will save lives.
A Bill for Wales to adopt a system of presumed consent passed its final stage in the Welsh Assembly this month.
But while nine in 10 of us say we support giving our organs, less than half of the population is on the NHS Donor Register.
The National Kidney Federation said the Scottish Government decision would cost lives.
Ewen Maclean, Scottish national advocacy officer, said: "Many renal patients in particular will die while waiting for Scottish politicians to make a decision to actually save lives by the introduction of the presumed consent bill, at the earliest possible moment. It has been debated long and hard and the time has come to take some positive action and prevent the three to four deaths per day of people on transplant waiting lists.
"It is a human tragedy that hundreds of organs are buried or cremated daily and those from individuals who had expressed a wish to be an organ donor."
Mr Maclean said a culture change was needed to ensure the 'needless waste' of human life is ended.
British Heart Foundation Scotland director Marjory Burns pointed out that around 1000 people a year die in the UK waiting for a transplant.
She added: "Waiting to assess how opt-out organ donation will work in Wales in 2015 is too late."
Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the British Medical Association Scotland, added: "We can't wait until 2015 to begin the debate about opt-out. We need to start the public debate about this now."
But the British Lung Foundation Scotland said the Government was wise to take its time to see how the policy in Wales fares.
Labour MSP Drew Smith said he planned to consult on a proposal for a Bill in Holyrood for a "soft opt-out scheme" through which the views of relatives would be taken into account.
Delaying any decision on opt-out is one of 21 recommendations in the new Donation and Transplantation Plan for Scotland, which aims to increase the number of donors and transplants.
More than two million people in Scotland are on the NHS Organ Donor Register and the Government wants to increase transplant rates.
Other recommendations include having more effective campaigns, involving specialist nurses for organ donation in all discussions with family members; and continuing to work with black, Asian and minority ethnic people where some can be more at risk of conditions which may lead to a transplant being needed.
Public Health Minister Michael Matheson said: "Organ transplants transform lives. That is why we must do more to ensure that everyone who wished to become donors are able to do so."
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