Opt For Life Campaign

GUSRC are proud to support the Evening Times’s Opt For Life Campaign and the notion of presumed opt-in, or presumed consent, organ donating.

We would encourage all students to read the information below, sign the petition and, in the meantime, consider signing up to be an organ donor.

We believe that establishing an automatic right to take organs when the donor has not expressed wishes to the contrary would lead to a significant increase in the number of potential donors and that the relatives or those close to a person who has not expressed a wish to donate would be relieved of the burden of making that decision at a traumatic time.

With Wales leading the way and implementing similar proposals from 2015, we believe it is time for Scotland to put in place measures to ensure that the current struggling system is improved.

The Organ Donor Taskforce, set up by the previous Westminster government, had set targets to increase organ donor rates in the UK by 50% by 2013, a target it is unlikely to meet with the current rate at just 27%.

The Campaign

Recent developments in the campaign include:

  • Backing from British Medical Association, as well as British Heart Foundation and Kidney Research UK.
  • Backing from more than 50 SNP, Labour, LibDem and Green MSPs
  • Backing of 46 of Glasgow’s City Councillors

For more information, please visit the the Evening Times subsite.

The Petition

Please sign the petition to show your support for this campaign and the presumed consent method of organ donation.

I would like the organ donor system to be changed so that consent is presumed unless a person specifically opts out.