Prioritising existing donors to receive organs would boost donation from ethnic minorities

In December 2006 the British government set up an organ donation taskforce to identify barriers and solutions to boosting organ donation in the United Kingdom. The recommendations, published in January 2008,1 were intended to rectify one of the worst organ donation rates of any country in Western Europe.

Boosting organ donation from deceased donors by 50% within five years was a laudable aim. Achieving this target in 2013 has therefore been a notable success, although it is too early to ascertain whether the increase in organ quantity has come at the expense of a decrease in organ quality. In addition, over the past four years the number of registrants to the organ donor register (ODR) has increased by 30%, and the numbers of deceased and living donors have risen by 35% and 23%, respectively.2

However, since publication of this report there has been a huge failure to boost organ donation from members of black, …