Wanted alive: Ontario transplant donors

Ontario's health minister has heard from experts thatlive donors will be neededto meet the demand for organ transplants.

George Smitherman said Wednesday that he has just received a report from an advisory panel charged with figuring out how to boost the number of transplants in the province.

And he said he has already heard that live donors will be a focus of that report.

"Liver and kidney are the very, very significant portion of people that are awaiting transplant, and these things can be accomplished with a living donor," he said.

Smitherman said he will releasethe report in the next few weeks, butaddedit is unlikely to generate any changes to legislation before the provincial election scheduled for October.

Reportto discuss presumed consent

The report is expected to discuss whether Ontario should introduce a law for "presumed consent" to organ donations. That would make available for donation the organs of every suitable donor who has been deemed brain dead unless they formally opted out.

Smitherman said such a law alone will not be able to meet demand for organ transplants, so more living donors are needed.

Premier Dalton McGuintyhas said he is not in favour of presumed consent.

Smitherman announced last November that the government had appointed a six-member citizens advisory panel to figure out how to increase organ donations in the province.

The panel receivedmore than 2,000 submissions through public meetings, paid focus groups, online surveys and letters.

There are 1,748 patients on the Ontario transplant waiting list.