Hi,

I’m trying to put this message out as widely as I can, to prompt some thought on the issue of organ donation.

My baby girl's life was saved in 2004 when she received the gift of a liver. She had just turned one.

This week I attended the funeral of a baby girl who died just after her first birthday, waiting for a liver transplant. Had a compatible liver been donated two or more weeks ago, she would have had a fantastic chance for a normal life. Instead, she stopped breathing the day after her hospital birthday party, and although rescuscitated, she was then deemed beyond viability for transplant, and she died a few days later.

It is nobody's individual fault that this precious child has missed out on a life-saving transplant. However, it is the collective problem of all of us that organ donation rates are not keeping up with the medical need in our community.

The next person who misses out may be our friend, our family member, or any one of us.

Personally, I am strongly in favour of the opt-out system for organ donation (or presumed consent), but would defend to the end any person's right to opt out without question. We need as many people as potential donors as possible, given the limited situations in which organ donation is possible. The opt-out system is the best compromise I can think of for increasing donor numbers whilst respecting the wishes of those who do not want to donate.

This of course would require legislative change, and may never happen in this country.

Please, in the meantime, can we talk early about our wishes regarding organ donation with our family members, so that the need for heartbreaking snap decisions (to donate or not) in the face of unbearable grief is taken away?

Australians seem to support organ donation, but it is not happening often enough.

I am heartbroken when I think of the grief of the family of this recently deceased, precious baby girl.

Thankyou,

Lynne