The Human Transplantation (Wales) Act 2013: An Act of Encouragement, Not Enforcement

The Human Transplantation (Wales) Act became law in Wales in September 2013. The Act aims to increase deceased donor organ and tissue donation in Wales by introducing a ‘soft opt‐out’ system to replace the previous requirement of express ‘appropriate’ consent under the Human Tissue Act 2004. Adults dying in Wales (with certain exceptions) will be ‘deemed’ to consent to donation, unless evidence of their objection is produced, and a duty is imposed on Ministers to promote transplantation and inform the public through awareness campaigns about how to choose the deemed status or opt out. Although a welcome development, these campaigns may obscure the effects of deemed consent, especially in the context of generally rising UK donation rates. There may also be problems of legal interpretation and of integration with the ‘opt‐in’ laws in the rest of the UK. In the absence of any statutory duty to retrieve all lawfully donated organs, the apparently restricted influence of donor relatives is likely to remain effectively dominant.