N.B. parents push for organ bill to pass after son died waiting 18 years for transplant
CBC
A New Brunswick couple is urging the legislature to move swiftly to adopt a presumed consent model for organ and tissue donations after their son died while waiting 18 years for a kidney transplant.
Jeannette and Norbert Roy believe Joël-Michel Roy, of Campbellton, N.B., would still be alive if he had received a transplant.
He was born with a bilateral kidney defect and underwent a transplant as a teenager, but it failed. At 24, his doctors put him back on a waiting list for an organ transplant.
"He was a priority, but since there had already been a transplant, it complicates things because the antibodies are high," his mother said in French. "It means that … it takes a big list, a large population pool to be able to find a kidney that is compatible."
On Feb. 24, after a lifelong fight, Joël-Michel Roy died in Saint John, following complications. He was 41.
Last week, the Official Opposition introduced a bill they say could increase organ donations and decrease wait times.
Under the proposed amendments to the Human Tissue Gift Act, all adults who are not exempt will be presumed to agree to donate their organs and tissues when they die — unless they opt out, also known as deemed consent.
As it stands, New Brunswickers who want to donate their organs and tissues must check the appropriate box when they apply for or renew their Medicare card.
The bill received second reading and has been referred to a legislature committee.
Although government House leader Glen Savoie, who manages the legislative agenda, has vowed to make sure the bill moves forward, he did not commit to passing it quickly.
When pressed on whether it should be a priority since people could die on the wait-list, Savoie called that fear mongering.
"If you can find any examples where somebody in New Brunswick has died because we didn't have organ donation available, I'd like to know. If that's happened … I'm not aware of it," he told reporters last week.
"I'm not saying it's not a priority, I'm just simply saying that if we're going to do this, why would we say, 'Let's go rush into this,' and then not be able to deliver the service because of the infrastructure that we have to build and everything else?
"Do you want it done right, or do you want it done fast?"
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