Dr Evan Harris

The Liberal Democrats have passed "historic" proposals to boost the number of human organs available for transplant.

Dr Evan Harris urged Brighton delegates to support a motion backing an "opt-out" system for organ donation.

Current practice means that prospective donors must "opt-in", positively declaring their intention to donate organs after death.

The Lib Dem health spokesman argued that the presumption should shift to assuming a willingness to give organs after death.

"It's time for the government to consider calls from parliament, and from organisations such as the BMA, to replace the current opt-in system with an opt-out system which allows people to register an opt-out but otherwise presumes consent to the saving of a life after one's death," he said.

While over 70 per cent of the UK population are willing to carry a donor card and inform their relatives of consent, "very few do and many organs are lost" Harris added.

Despite high-profile cases and media coverage of successful transplants many patients waiting for transplants are simply dying.

"This is an urgent problem. For every George Best, there are many people in desperate need of a life saving or life transforming transplant who die while waiting," he told his party's conference.

"Many organs are lost to burial or cremation when their owners would have wanted them to be used to save a life."

"The current system is simply not working."

Harris also backed more controversial plans to give doctors the right to put "moribund" patients - with prior informed consent - on ventilators to aid organ harvest.

And he demanded support for reform that would allow the "legalisation of altruistic unrelated [live] kidney donation and reciprocal or 'chain' unrelated kidney donation".

Measures that, if law, would lead to a massive boost to the availability of organs - and in the case of kidneys a huge living supply available from "altruistic" donations.

Lib Dems argue that a "head of steam" is building up behind calls for change - with patient groups, professional associations and MPs backing reform.

All too often, Harris believes, politicians are put off by the "yuck factor". "Politicians, particularly governments, are very bad at talking about issues like this," he says.

"It's a bit 'yuck'. It means talking about death. It also generally means free votes. Governments, particularly control freak governments, don't like the prospect of legislation in this area because they're not sure what might happen."

Although the Alder Hey organ scandal did not damage public trust in the donor system, Harris insists the number of people opting-in to donation is falling.

"[The] number is not rising, if anything it is falling. At the same time we have increasing numbers of people waiting for a transplant and dying for a transplant," he said.

Waiting lists for transplants have been rising since 1993 - up by 1718 patients on active and suspended lists.

Government targets set in July 2000 look set to be missed. "Liberal Democrats believe that our present old fashioned and creaking arrangements badly need to be brought up to date," Harris said from the podium.