Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I again thank both the member for Canberra for bringing this motion before the House and all the speakers on the motion. We need to put the matter into context. The reality is that less than one per cent of deaths occurs in such a way that the donation of the deceased’s organs is possible, and currently across Australia an average of only 50 per cent of families consent to the donation of the organs of deceased loved ones. That is why this debate is so important—less than one per cent of deaths permit the donation of organs and only 50 per cent of organ donations from those who have consented to be organ donators proceed. We need to have discussions with our families. Many of the statistics have already been cited, but I am going to restate them so that my speech is complete:

One organ and tissue donation can save the lives of up to 10 people and significantly improve the lives of dozens more.

Australia has a world class reputation for successful transplant outcomes.

Australia also has one of the lowest donation rates in the developed world.

98 % of Australians agree that organ and tissue donation has the potential to save and improve lives.

40% of Australians do not know the donation wishes of their loved ones.

Less than 1 in 5 Australians (only 17%) have had a memorable discussion with their loved ones about their donation wishes.

The most important thing that helps a family’s decision is their knowing the wishes of their loved one.

Australia’s family consent rate is low with just 58% of families giving consent for organ and tissue donation to proceed.

Around 1700 people are on Australian organ transplant waiting lists at any one time.

On average, people on the transplant list must wait between 6 months and 4 years.

Many of those people, of course, die while on the list. Some further statistics are:

In 2009, less than half of the demand for organs was able to be met.

In 2009, 247 organ donors gave 799 Australians a new chance in life.

So the actual donation rate is good—247 donors resulted in 799 Australians having a new chance in life.

In 2009, the Australian population had 11.3 donors per million people. In 2008 the Australian population had 12 donors per million; Spain had 34, the US 24, Estonia 23, Italy 21 and the United Kingdom 15.

As many speakers have said, Australia needs to lift its rate.

Australia has one of the highest retrieval rates per donor (3.4 organs per donor in 2008).

The reality is that when a person dies it is not just one organ that can be harvested and then utilised.

Australia’s rate of cornea donation puts it in the top five countries for corneal donation rates.

In 2008, 1096 people donated their corneas. As a result, 1696 people had their sight restored.

Each year, 3000-4000 skin, heart and musculoskeletal tissues are transplanted.

So it is not just major organs that can make a huge and defining difference to an individual’s life.

Being married to a MICA paramedic, I know it is often a fairly sobering thought at the end of the day’s work, having kept a person alive to get them to hospital so that organs can be harvested, that somebody will say no. It is a fairly confronting issue. My husband took a friend of ours out with him in the ambulance one night. I do not think he has ever been the same again. They worked tirelessly on a 33-year-old who was brain dead so that her organs could be donated. My husband will never find out if they were, as that is not appropriate, but it is a sobering thought that they might have worked all night to get somebody to hospital so that their organs could be used and then somebody turned around and said no.

Last year I went through a harrowing time with my father at the Alfred Hospital in intensive care for 10 weeks, 10 weeks that probably he should not have spent in intensive care. I had to have with doctors numerous conversations that I did not wish to have. One was when I had to fly home on a Wednesday night to discuss whether we would turn off his breathing apparatus. At the end of the harrowing experience my father did die, not that his organs would have been of use to anyone—I must put that on the record—but he had donated his body to Melbourne university to be used for students. This caused untold grief in my house because we were not going to have a body at the funeral. My argument was it was my father’s wish; he had conveyed it to me in no uncertain terms and we were going to do it. It saved us a small fortune too into the bargain, I can say. It was a very funny conversation with the undertaker because it was finally revealed that, yes, he had signed it over, but we respected his wishes. The easy thing in that family conversation was that I knew what my father’s wishes were and so I could say to my numerous brothers and sisters and to my uncles and aunts and my mother, ‘That is what he wanted to do.’ Have that discussion now before it is too late.

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