BMJ 1995;310:1404 (27 May)

Letters

Opting out scheme for donors has support in Britain

EDITOR,--On 30 November 1994, 4874 patients were waiting for a kidney transplant. This was an increase from the figures of 4640 in September 1993 and 3847 on 31 December 1990 (J Warren, personal communication).1 One reason is the fall in the number of deaths from road traffic accidents. In Britain these fell from 5934 in 1982 to 5217 in 1990 and 4229 in 1992.2

In an attempt to increase the number of transplants the government decided to computerise the register of organ donors. This development has had a mixed reception. Some people thought it a small step forward, while others said that it would prove just as ineffectual as the existing donor card system.3 A more active approach assumes people to be donors unless they opt out. We attempted to find out the views of the doctors involved on such a change.

In 1994 we sent a questionnaire to nephrology . . . [Full text of this article]


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