I rise to speak on the Human Tissue Amendment Bill 2020. This is a very important bill because it will clarify how to facilitate an organ donor’s wish to provide viable organs and tissues to improve and, in many cases, save the lives of transplant recipients. We are making changes to the current act, the Human Tissue Act 1982. It is silent on the process for ante-mortem transplants and how such procedures are to be authorised. These procedures are treatments given to a potential organ donor before their death, and these procedures will help delay the deterioration of the organs, which begins to occur upon the withdrawal of life support. This means the organs can remain viable for a period of time when the body circulation ceases. This includes delaying the withdrawal of cardiorespiratory support to allow time to organise the organ donation operation and taking blood samples to ensure the organs are a suitable match for potential recipients. This is really important because, once life support is removed and the body stops circulating blood, organs become affected and for organs like lungs and hearts, waiting until after the donor has passed away means that the sudden lack of blood flow may compromise the organs’ viability.
Now, in certain cases ante-mortem procedures make the difference between whether one person dies or two people, and yet despite how important these procedures are, the current legislation is still silent on how and when these procedures are authorised. That is what this bill seeks to change. The changes in this bill incorporate standards and guidelines from the National Protocol on Donation after Cardiac Death, and this way our government is making sure that ante-mortem procedures are conducted in a manner that is ethical and takes into account the wishes of the donor and their family in the process.
When I read about the changes in this bill I stopped to pause, because it also sounds very clinical, doesn’t it. I suppose it is, and in some respects death, like birth, is clinical if you are looking at it from a medical or scientific point of view. But as human beings we know all too well that the birth of our children, like the death of someone we love, is anything but clinical. It is emotional, and it often does not involve those emotions we are used to feeling and grappling with on a daily basis. It is raw, it is emotive and it is felt deep inside us, because we value life, no matter how short or long it may be.
When I knew I would speak on this bill, I picked up the phone and I called someone close to me and asked him if he would share the personal journey of his family, which was forever changed after receiving a lung transplant. I knew it would not be easy for him. He would have to relive his feelings and emotions, and I knew it would be incredibly upsetting for him, but he was really quick to respond ‘yes’. I think that is because he knows just how important organ donation and a bill like this truly are. And I say to that person: you know who you are. Thank you for sharing your story with us here today. You are truly a remarkable person, and your mum, I have no doubt, is very proud of you.
I struggle to remember a time when she wasn’t sick, it had been that way for most of my life.
Graduation day as I finished VCE was like so many other days, spent in a hospital waiting room with Mum for one of endless appointments.
It’s not easy being a carer, especially as a teenager with your whole life ahead of you.
But it was all I’d known and that’s what you do for the people you love.
I can still remember clearly the constant sound of the oxygen machine heard day and night through out our house.
It was 7 years later after I finished VCE when the tone of the doctor changed, there had been several close calls in that time where it didn’t seem like she would make it.
She was now fit enough to go on the waiting list for a transplant, though the doctors were very realistic about the risks involved.
You could be on this list for years, and there was no guarantee of success when it came to surgery.
Just over 3 months was all it took as Mum woke me frantically at 2am. The hospital had called.
I was groggy and didn’t understand, it seemed like we had only just been in the doctors office talking about going on the transplant list days before.
The immediate shock turned to a feeling of incredible luck, before turning to one of substantial guilt.
This meant that somewhere another family was now left devastated and grieving.
We got in the car and I drove across the city to the hospital, holding mums’ hand as I drove with an occasionally broken silence, she was scared and so was I.
What would I do without her?
We thought we’d have 2 years to prepare mentally and emotionally. But now we were caught off guard with a huge decision to make.
The risks were real.
I sat crouched on the hospital floor, refusing a chair for what seemed like hours as she was wheeled back and forth for tests.
As the sun rose for the day, my siblings were the first of our family to arrive shortly before the doctors came by to see us all for the very last time.
The tests had gone well, and they were ready to proceed.
Mum had to make the choice knowing there was a chance she wouldn’t wake up, to her it was worth it for a chance to live again. For a quality life.
It’s been 3 years, and I’ll never forget the generosity of someone we had never met, and their grieving family that gave me my mother back.
Just last year 221 641 Australians registered to become organ donors on the Australian organ donor register, and in the same year 1683 Australians received life-saving transplants from over 800 donors. A further 12 000 Australians received eye and tissue donations. Now, Australians are overwhelmingly in support of organ donations, yet despite 69 per cent of Australians being willing to donate their organs when they die, only one in three is registered to be a donor. So I would like to take this opportunity to echo the sentiments of my colleagues in this chamber encouraging Victorians to consider registering as a donor. On average the waiting list for an organ donation is about 1700 people. Your decision to donate could very well save lives, and it has never been easier. All you need is your Medicare card, and you can register online at the DonateLife website, where it only takes a couple of minutes. You can also register now through MyGov, through the Express Plus Medicare app or by filling in a paper form.
On that note, I would like to give a big shout-out to the work done in this space by DonateLife Victoria. I understand they have worked very closely with our government on the changes in this bill. When I heard this bill was coming up, I took a little bit of time to learn about DonateLife and what they do, and I have to say they do a truly incredible job. In fact they are already working on providing us with the guidance for ante-mortem procedures to follow once this bill is in fact passed, and that is working with doctors and the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that they support ethical patient management and involve appropriate decision-making and consent processes.
This bill does make a small but very important change to the laws governing organ donation here in Victoria, and these ante-mortem procedures are so important in making sure that organs can be donated—and that means essentially saving lives. I am very glad to see that our government has decided to make efforts to clarify existing legislation and improve our donation system. It is for these reasons I commend the bill to the house.
