Western Australia to introduce new organ donor lawsJune 08, 2008 01:29pm
A 13-month-old boy in need of a new liver may be among the first to benefit from new organ donor laws in Western Australia.
Deakin Tran, of Perth, who has the pediatric liver disease biliary atresia, is on 10 different medications a day.
"Just waiting is quite tough all the time, because you don't know when you're going to get that phone call,'' his mother Brooke Tran, 28, said.
"Deakin's been in and out of hospital all the time ... it will just be good to increase the chances for people like my son to get the organ donation.''
Currently a person must be brain dead before organs can be retrieved, but new legislation allows retrieval from people after cardiac death.
Health Minister Jim McGinty says a similar change of the laws in South Australia has already increased the number of donors.
"This will expand the number of people who can become organ donors and the number of people who wish to become organ donors,'' Mr McGinty said.
"Young kids like Deakin will now have a better prospect of achieving organ donation.''
The bill, which is scheduled to pass through the parliament this week, also gives patients greater control over medical interventions at the time of death.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21498,23830710-2761,00.html?from=public_rss
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