All adults in England will be considered organ donors when they die, after a change to the law this week that will presume consent unless the family intervenes or the individual opts out.
The law is called Max and Keira’s law, after a boy whose life was saved when he received the heart of a nine-year-old girl who died in a car crash.
When nine-year-old Keira Ball suffered fatal injuries in a road accident in August 2017, the decision to donate her organs was made.
Keira’s organs went on to save four lives: her kidneys were given to two adults, her liver to a baby and her heart to another nine-year-old – Max Johnson, who had been on the urgent organ waiting list for eight months after being diagnosed with a life-threatening form of dilated cardiomyopathy, where the heart does not pump blood properly.
While still in hospital waiting for his new heart, Max and his family campaigned for a change in the organ donation law to an opt-out system in England. The change came into effect on 20 May and could save hundreds of lives each year.
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