TORONTO - The sensitive issue of making everyone in Ontario an automatic organ donor unless they opt out will not be broached before the October election, nor will any other major changes to organ donation law, Health Minister George Smitherman said Wednesday.
Recommendations from a government panel on the controversial issue are now sitting on Smitherman's desk and are expected to be released in a few weeks.
While critics say the Liberals should change organ donation law now to save patients languishing on waiting lists, Smitherman said it's too ambitious to expect legislation that could radically change policy before the coming election.
Still, he said the province will act on short-term initiatives to boost donation.
"The legislation would be very, very difficult to commit to this year,'' Smitherman said before entering a cabinet meeting. "But I fully expect there will be things we can act on immediately and that would be our instinct.''
Smitherman convened a $1-million panel late last year to examine how to boost organ donation in Ontario, including the thorny issue of presumed consent -- where everyone is automatically a donor unless they indicate otherwise.
Many advocates hoped the panel's work would result in a government bill to increase donation, either through presumed consent, in place in some European countries, or through a registration system.
While Smitherman has yet to read the panel's report, he said he doesn't expect any such recommendation.
The recommendations are based on some 2,000 submissions through public meetings, paid focus groups, online survey and letters.
Transplant experts have "conclusively'' said that they want the province to focus on increasing the number of live donors rather than waiting until a potential donor is close to death, Smitherman said.
"A very significant portion of people awaiting transplant are waiting for a liver and kidney. These things can be accomplished through the living donor,'' he said.
"This, I think, is what they're going to focus on in a substantial way in the report because that's where you get the numbers you need to reduce the wait.''
Premier Dalton McGuinty said he's in favour of working within the existing system.
"If we could encourage more people to take advantage of the system that's already in place, so that they can sign a card or make it evident that they're prepared to make a donation in the event of their death, that's the preference,'' he said.
That doesn't go far enough for people who have experienced the slow pace of Ontario's organ-donation system.
Sarit Kind, who has watched her mother wait in agony for two liver transplants, said the government could make everyone an automatic organ donor or create a registry of willing donors.
"The longer this is stalled, the more people will die,'' said the 28-year old.
There are some 1,748 patients are on the transplant waiting list in Ontario, the bulk of them men.
The Liberals are afraid of losing any votes by dealing with the issue before the next election, said Kind. Instead, she said they are giving some advocates "false hope'' that they will increase organ donation while avoiding angering those who oppose legislation.
Increasing organ donation obviously isn't a priority for the Liberals, New Democrat Peter Kormos said.
"People are dying while this government plays politics with the issue,'' said Kormos, who has introduced a private members bill that would legislate a presumed consent system.
"Ontarians deserve far better. Now those people who have waited far too long on waiting lists are going to have to wait even longer. I'm very disappointed.''
Conservative Tim Hudak said making everyone an automatic organ donor isn't the only way to help reduce waiting lists. The province should resurrect the system where people are asked whether they would like to be a donor when they apply for their driver's licence, he said.
"I think we should do more to encourage people,'' he said.
"I certainly don't support reverse-onus provisions that say that your organs can be harvested whether you like it or not.''
