Qld: Organ donation needs extensive public education says AMAQ

AAP General News (Australia)
04-29-2008
Qld: Organ donation needs extensive public education says AMAQ

Doctors have welcomed a Queensland government proposal to boost organ donations ..

but say an extensive public education campaign is needed before its introduction.

Premier ANNA BLIGH says the government has set up a committee to examine the "opt out"

approach to organ donation.

This assumes people wish to donate their organs after death unless they've officially
registered their objections.

It's being debated in the UK to overcome a chronic shortage of organ donors.

AMA Queensland president ROSS CARTMILL says doctors are keen to promote organ donation
because Australia's rate of organ donation is so low.







At any given time .. almost 18 hundred Australians are waiting for an organ transplant
.. with around 175 Queenslanders on the waiting list.

But only 21 per cent of Queenslanders legally able to register their consent to donate
have actually done so.

AAP RTV rad/pjo/af/tm

KEYWORD: ORGAN AMAQ (BRISBANE)

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