The Human Transplantation (Wales) Bill is a deeply flawed piece of legislation and it is shameful of the BMA in Wales to have lobbied for it. It adds further shame for doctors on BMA Wales committees who formerly opposed presumed consent to have ceased to speak out. It makes one ask: cui bono?

The BMA Wales have produced a policy and then selected evidence to support that policy so evidence does not inform policy. Again one asks: cui bono?

Key evidence is widely available:

a) Deemed/presumed/inferred consent achieves a low ethical standard and it is a fictitious consent. It is culturally wrong for Wales – a country with a strong history of respect for autonomy.

b) The relatively high organ donation rates through informed consent in Wales will be at risk when the Bill is enacted.

c) Spain does not operate a presumed consent system and this fact has been stated by Dr Rafael Matesanz, Director of the Spanish National Transplant Organization (Organización Nacional de Trasplantes, ONT) in the British Medical Journal (2010), The Guardian (2008), et alia.

d) There is a not a shortage of organs in Wales or elsewhere in the United Kingdom; there are systemic problems linking voluntary donations of organs with recipients. Evidence sources include the Academy of Royal Colleges Wales, Welsh Intensive Care Society and the UK Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.