Everyone in England will become an organ donor next year as 'opt out' bill becomes a law

18 March 2019, 11:24 | Updated: 18 March 2019, 16:47

By Alice Dear

By this time next year, everyone living in England will automatically become an organ donor.

On Friday March 15, Max and Keira’s Law – also known as the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill 2017-19 or the ‘opt-out’ bill – was granted Royal Assent.

This means the Bill will now become a law.

The new law means that from spring 2020 all adults in England will be considered as potential organ donors unless they formally make the decision to “opt out”.

There will be some groups excluded from the new law.

This includes adults that have been in England for less than 12 months, under 18s and people who “lack the capacity to understand the change”.

In Wales, the 'opt out' bill has been in place since 2015.

Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, Anthony Clarkson, said: “Our research shows that eight in ten people in England say they definitely want to donate or would consider donating some or all of their organs.

“However, as it currently stands, only just over a third of adults have told their partner or family that they want to donate their organs after they die.”

The director hopes that once the law is implemented they will see more people agreeing to donate therefore resulting in more lifesaving transplants.

There are currently 6,000 people in the UK on the transplant waiting list.

Last year, 400 people died while waiting for a transplant.

You can register your decision to opt in or opt out on the NHS’s organ donation website here.