MEP Calls for EU Donor Card

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 2nd May 2008

An EU wide donor card would help solve the current donor shortage that exists all over Europe, according to Elspeth Attwooll MEP.

And while the problem is widespread across the European Union - with an estimated 40,000 people on waiting lists - it is particularly acute in the UK, where there are 8,000 on waiting lists, 800 of whom are in Scotland.

Added to this, the UK has only an average of 13 donors per million people, while Spain, for example, has 35 per million.

The LibDem MEP for Scotland said:

"An EU dimension to organ donation could complement existing national donor programmes. Most importantly it could save more lives in Scotland. It would dramatically increase the number of potential donors, which, in turn, would increase the possibility that the right donor can be found at the right time

An EU directive on organ donation and transplant would also allow us to better tackle the problem of illegal organ trafficking, for example, which is increasingly common across all Member States."

ENDS

Notes:

MEPs recently voted in favour of proposals for an EU wide donor card. More information on the scheme, plus the Report on "Organ donation and transplantation: policy action at EU level", can be found at:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5531962