Mr. Michael Conroy:

The piece that has been recalled is on post-mortems and the retention of organs and tissue in the 1990s. I mentioned previously the Madden report and that is the background of a Bill on consent for human organs and tissue, which is covered in this. The provisions about post-mortem specifically covers the issues that appeared at that time. It is separate to transplant and they were linking in with anatomical examination, public display and so on.

On transplants, in the commentary on the ethical importance of consent, which accompanies the World Health Organization's guiding principles on human cell tissue and organ transplantation it states that people should be fully informed of the opt-out system and be provided with an easy means of opting out. That is one of the objectives on the transplant side of this Bill linked to the past - that people will have an opt-out system. There will not be any push on taking organs from a person. We do not want the impression given that that might, at any stage, be done so we want a very clear opt-out where a person can opt out and the family will not be approached. The ODTI representatives can speak more on the details of the register. It is envisaged that there will be a renewal of an opt-out. In other words, a person will be contacted periodically to confirm that that is still his or her wish. It will not be a case of going on a register when one is 20 years of age and maybe having a totally different view at 45 years and forgetting one is on a register and so on.