PMB_OrganDonation2006

Private Member's Bills

Organ and Tissue Donation Mandatory Declaration Act, 2006

Ontario Hansard - 30-March2006

Mr. Frank Klees (Oak Ridges): I'm proud to rise today to discuss an issue that I believe, and am very hopeful, will find common ground in this place. It's not often, I think, that all three parties can see an issue from the perspective of the good that it can do and the lives that it can save. I believe we have before us today a bill that should have the confidence of every member of this House.

Before I go into the details of this bill, I want to recognize individuals in the galleries today who are with us and who are playing a very important role in ensuring that the issue before us is implemented. There are those who have benefited from organ transplant, tissue transplant. I want to first of all recognize Dr. Frank Markel from the Trillium Gift of Life Network, who is here with us today, along with Jennifer Tracey. In that context, I want to recognize my colleague Elizabeth Witmer, who, then the Minister of Health, had the privilege of introducing the legislation that gave life to the Trillium Gift of Life Network.

I also want to recognize today Ms. Janet Bick, the Kidney Foundation's director of government and professional relations; Ms. Riva Grinshpan, president of the central branch of the Kidney Foundation; and Mr. Wayne Sampson, who is a transplant recipient and volunteer for the Kidney Foundation. The Kidney Foundation is here in the Legislature today to give focus to the important work of that foundation and, obviously, to the application of the very subject that we're speaking to today to individuals in this province.

The origin of this bill is with my constituents. When I introduced this bill initially, I did so in honour of a good friend, Don Cousens, who is a former member of this Legislature and the current mayor of Markham. He himself is a recipient of a kidney transplant and, as we speak today, is again on a waiting list, this time for a double transplant.

I also want to recognize in the gallery today Mr. Geoffrey Risen and his wife, Sandra. Mr. Risen is also a recipient of a kidney; Mr. Glenn Wood as well. These are folks who sat across from me in my constituency office and spoke to me about their challenges, their anxiety, their frustration with a system in this province that, quite frankly, is unconscionable, given the nature of our province, the wealth of our province and the boasting that we do about one of the best health care systems in the world. Yet every three days one person dies on a waiting list awaiting a transplant in this province. It is not because people in this province don't want to be organ donors, because an Environics poll tells us that 96% of people, when asked, support organ donation, yet only 40% or so actually ever sign a donor card. So I suggest to you, Speaker, and I ask members of this Legislature to consider why it is that we are falling far behind many other jurisdictions in the availability of organ donations. I suggest that this bill before us goes in some direction to alleviating that concern.

The bill before us will require, when implemented, that every person 16 years of age and older in the province of Ontario, as a matter of course of making application for or renewing a driver's licence or a provincial health card, make a declaration regarding their intentions concerning organ donation. That declaration will be a standard part of the application form for the driver's licence or the provincial health card.

I want to make it very clear that what this legislation does not do is force anyone to make a decision to be an organ donor, and it doesn't force anyone to say no. In fact, what the application allows for is a yes, a no or an undecided. It should be of no offence to anyone. It's simply a declaration that, "I have given thought to this." I believe it's important that we have a built-in mechanism in those two important provincial documents that actually forces people to confront this very important issue periodically in the course of their life, to give consideration to this life-giving issue.

Every person in this province has the ability to give life and to sustain life. I believe we, as legislators, have an opportunity here, through this legislation, to make that a possibility and ensure that people don't miss that important opportunity to give life and to sustain life. I believe that it's very important that individuals have the right to make that very personal decision. I do not believe that anyone should be presuming that that is a decision that people make.

I want to, at this point in time, thank my colleague Peter Kormos for his initiative through his private member's bill. I also want to recognize that there are other bills in this place. Mr. Levac has introduced, I believe, a very important bill as well that relates to introducing an education program beginning in the elementary school level to ensure that young people understand the importance and the implications of organ donation, and I would support that.

I'm not suggesting that this legislation before us holds all of the answers, but I do believe it's a very important part of ensuring that we take the important step to ensure that people in our province have the opportunity to have their lives saved, have the quality of their life improved. If we can do that, why not?

I want to recognize as well in the gallery a constituent, Gerri Seely, and her husband Dennis. Gerri is a recipient of a transplant, a living transplant. This is an incredible story of a friend who came forward to offer herself as a donor. I believe that in all of this we have an example that life is a miracle, and we can pass that miracle on to others if we just have an open mind to it.

In the gallery as well is Heather Dunlop. I want to welcome her in a special way, because her husband, just a week ago, I believe, received a lung transplant. Mr. Dunlop wrote me not too long ago, about two weeks before his transplant: "My name is Dave Dunlop. I have been waiting for a lung transplant since January 2004. I am on oxygen 24/7. I attend the hospital four times weekly for physiotherapy." He appeals and he says this: "Please keep us all in mind. These legislative changes are urgent. People are dying on the waiting list. You have the power to help."

I say to my colleagues in the Legislature today that you have the power to help. If there's anything we get elected for, if there is any opportunity we have to improve the quality of life of the people we represent, then this is an opportunity to do that. I appeal to you for your support. I appeal to the government that, should this legislation pass as a private member's bill, we have the support of the government as we move through the committee stage and that the government will see this indeed as a non-partisan issue, that this is not something we should have political debates about, but because it's the right thing to do, they would move quickly to implementation because it is practical, it is doable and it will save lives.

I thank you, Speaker. I thank members of the Legislature. I look forward to hearing from you, I look forward to hearing any advice you may have for improvement to this bill and I ask for your support.