Jan 16 2006
In a rather worrying trend it seems that figures recently released show that New Zealand has hit an all time low in the number of organ donors it has.
Apparently in 2005 only 29 people signed up to become organ donors.
It seems the previous lowest was more than 16 years ago when the numbers dropped to 34 donors.
According to Andy Tookey of GiveLife, the New Zealand Organ Donation reform lobby group, he warned a Parliamentary select committee four years ago that urgent attention was needed on the issue or New Zealand would descend into the status of a third world country.
Tookey says that in 2004 there were only 40 organ donors, the lowest in the Western World for the number of donors available, now at only 29 he believes New Zealand must be off the scale.
He blames a combination of political procrastination, bureaucratic inertia and interference from doctors and families of potential donors, for ensuring the country remains at the bottom of the world scale.
He suggests radical changes are needed to the country's organ donor system.
In the meantime he says, many will suffer and die whilst those who control the donor rates will view them as just another set of figures.