Human Tissue (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Act 2024
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Chapter 2 Consent | ||
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Deemed consent for donation of relevant organs and removal of relevant organs | ||
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18. (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a person shall be deemed to consent to the donation, after his or her death, of his or her relevant organs (in this Act referred to as “deemed consent”) where he or she has not registered his or her objection to such organ donation on the Register in accordance with section 33 . | ||
(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply— | ||
(a) to a person who has not been ordinarily resident in the State for a period of at least 12 months immediately before the date of his or her death, | ||
(b) to a person who, for a significant period before his or her death, lacked the capacity to understand that his or her consent would be deemed to be such if he or she did not register an objection to the donation of his or her organs on the Register, | ||
(c) to a person in respect of whom a designated family member cannot be identified or confirmed, or | ||
(d) to a child. | ||
(3) Where a person has not registered his or her objection to the donation of his or her relevant organs in accordance with section 33 , a registered medical practitioner who, after the person’s death proposes to remove a relevant organ from that person for the purposes of transplantation shall satisfy himself or herself that the designated family member of the person has confirmed that he or she does not have any objection to the donation of the relevant organ. | ||
(4) A registered medical practitioner shall not remove a relevant organ from a person for the purposes of transplantation if he or she has not satisfied himself or herself in accordance with subsection (3). | ||
(5) Without prejudice to the generality of this section when seeking to satisfy him or herself as to whether there is any objection to the donation of a relevant organ to be used for transplantation, a relevant professional shall, in accordance with any guidelines and, where appropriate in accordance with the Regulations of 2012— | ||
(a) subject to Regulation 24(7) of the Regulations of 2012, provide the designated family member with sufficient information, and | ||
(b) inform the designated family member of the effect of subsection (9). | ||
(6) Where a designated family member is approached to confirm that there is no objection to the donation of relevant organs for the purpose of transplantation, the family member shall consider and give substantial weight as to whether or not he or she believes that the relevant person, the subject of the request, would have had an objection to such a procedure. | ||
(7) Where a designated family member objects to the donation of a relevant organ, the relevant organ shall not be used for transplantation and the objection of the designated family member shall be recorded in writing by the relevant professional and retained with the deceased person’s medical records for a period of 30 years. | ||
(8) Where the designated family member has confirmed that he or she has no objection to the removal and donation of a relevant organ, he or she shall provide confirmation that the relevant organ may be used for transplantation in accordance with section 10 (1). | ||
(9) A designated family member may, at any time up to the commencement of the process for removal of the relevant organ for transplantation, object to the donation but no objection can be made once the process for removal of such relevant organ has begun. |