Examination of Witnesses (Questions 140
- 144)
THURSDAY 13 DECEMBER 2007
Mr Chris Rudge, Mr Gareth Jones and Ms Triona Norman
Q140 Lord Lea of Crondall:
What did you say then?
Mr Rudge: I said that if the donor is white,
35% of the families refuse permission for those organs to be transplanted
into anybody. If the donor is not white, 75% of the families refuse
permission for the organs to be donated into anybody. It is not
the recipients I am talking about; it is the donors. It is permission
from the relatives.
Lord Lea of Crondall: I am sorry. Thank
you for making that clear.
Chairman: That does move us into some
of the issues around this which are about faith groups. Lady Gale
wanted to ask some questions because we have had some difficulty
getting responses.
Q141 Baroness Gale: What can
you tell us about the concerns of individuals about organ donation
and transplantation—possibly associated with faith-based
beliefs—that might lead them to oppose organ donation by
themselves or their relatives? How do you think that these concerns
could most effectively be addressed?
Mr Rudge: There are six major faiths in this
country: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and
Sikhism. I have worked with UK Transplant to produce some leaflets,
so the official position of those six religions is that organ
donation is a good thing and they believe followers of those faiths
should donate their organs. The problem is translating that into
practice at a local level. I am not sure whether this is strictly
speaking a faith-based decision or a wider culturally based decision
but, as I have emphasised, the families of patients from ethnic
minority groups—and that is not necessarily the same as
faith groups but there is obviously an overlap—do not give
permission for organ donation. So it is a local cultural phenomenon
rather than a formal position of the faith. I intended to bring
those six leaflets with me but I will happily provide them to
you if they would be helpful, because they set out very clearly
the views of those faith communities.
Baroness Young of Hornsey: I think we
have a copy.
Chairman: Yes, we have a note, thank
you.
Q142 Baroness Gale: Are people
of faith less keen than the general public on organ donation?
I would have thought it would be in the general population that
the relatives of somebody who died would not be too willing for
their organs to be used.
Mr Rudge: I do not know that there is any evidence
to answer your question about the faiths of donors or the faiths
of their families. There is a broad trend which everybody looks
at and nobody understands that organ donation rates and consent
rates for donation appear to be higher in the Southern European
Roman Catholic countries than they are in the Northern European
Protestant countries. It is a very broad generality but it does
seem to stand up quite clearly.
Q143 Chairman: Has the Taskforce
looked at this? Is this something that will be subject to their
report, do you know?
Mr Jones: No, I do not believe it is. But I
think they do generally acknowledge that more work needs to be
done around these variances between culture, faith, ethnicity.
Q144 Chairman: It seems to
be a very crucial area and one where other countries in Europe
might have something to add to give us. That takes me on to the
last question about research and information. I know Mr Rudge
said in response to Lady Young's question that there was a lot
of research going on in a variety of areas and we are interested
in your views on new research and the improvement of information.
However we have come really to the end of the session. I am going
to have to ask you if it would be possible for you to let us have
this in writing. We do think this is crucially important. Indeed,
it might be better to have it in writing because I assume there
is quite a lot you would want to give us and that would be very
valuable. Do you mind if I do not ask you that question at this
moment and ask for that in writing?
Mr Rudge: We would be very happy
to give you that.
Chairman: Thank you very much. That has
been an extremely helpful session. You have reinforced some of
our knowledge and what we have heard before, which is always important,
and you have taken us into new areas and that has given us more
food for thought. We are beginning to distil some of the questions
that we do not have answers to. Thank you very much indeed. We
wish you well in what you are trying to achieve.
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