KEY POINTS:
The push to improve New Zealand's organ donation rates has had a setback after Parliament's health select committee recommended against establishing a donor register.
The committee yesterday approved the Government's Human Tissue Bill governing the legal framework for informed consent for organ donation, but a majority recommended against establishing a donor registry.
But it left the option open for a register to be established at an unspecified later date.
Scrapped was National MP Jackie Blue's Organ Donor Registry Bill, which would have allowed for a legally binding register.
Organ-donation campaigner Andy Tookey was last night stunned at the decision, which he said overturned the MPs' own previous recommendations for a register.
"What they have just announced has put us backwards by five years. There is not one single item in their report today which goes towards making any recommendations for fixing up a system that they themselves have said badly needed fixing.
"The Government bill gives even more people an even greater opportunity to veto the donor's wishes than is allowed under the current law. We know the current law doesn't work because we've only got 25 donors."
He had understood the committee's discussions had been over whether it should be a legally binding or non-binding register, given the understanding that the indicator on the driving licence is not informed consent.
"[It] makes you wonder why we spend tens of millions of dollars a year on financing select committees."
