Theresa May vows to change law on organ donations

Posted on: 4th October 2017

The British Liver Trust welcomes today’s announcement by Theresa May that they plan to change the organ donor system in England. The Prime Minister revealed the move to an ‘Opt Out’ system in her speech to delegates at the Tory party conference in Manchester.

There are currently around 9,700 people in the UK who are alive today because they have had a successful liver transplant.

Vanessa Hebditch, Director of Policy and Communications said, “The UK is currently facing an epidemic in liver disease with the numbers affected having increased by more than 400% in the last forty years. Every year hundreds of people die whilst waiting for a liver to become available. The British Liver Trust has been campaigning on this issue for a number of years and we are delighted that England is planning to move to an opt-out system as we believe this will lead to an increase in organ donation. At the moment, we just don’t have enough donors to meet demand.”