Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak in support of the member for Capricornia’s private member’s motion on organ donation. I also take this opportunity to congratulate the member for Capricornia on bringing such an important issue to be debated in the House. The advances the human race has made in both knowledge and ability over the last 100 years are mind-boggling, in no area more so, I suggest, than medicine. While flying to the moon and back was pure fantasy 100 years ago, so too was the thought of an organ being donated and the ability of science and doctors to transplant that organ into another body. In this debate I make mention of the advances that have been made in organ and tissue transplantation.

Transplantation accounts date back to at least the second century BC, however full or limited people’s understanding of the factors was at the time. A Chinese physician, Pien Ch’iao, notionally attempted to swap hearts between a man of strong spirit and weak will and another of weak spirit and strong will, thus making two balanced men. Saint Damian and Saint Cosmas of the third century reportedly replaced the gangrenous leg of the Roman deacon Justinian with the leg of a person recently deceased. However, the success of an operation and whether or not it was even attempted is questionable. The Italian surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi advanced the concept of transplant rejection in 1596, attributing the phenomenon to the ‘force and power of individuality’.

The 20th century saw the first successful corneal transplant, in 1905 in Austria. Alexis Carrel of France won the 1912 Nobel Prize for Medicine for advancing new suturing techniques, possibly developed from 1902 through successfully removing dogs’ kidneys, hearts and spleens. Joseph Murray of the United States of America performed the first successful kidney transplant in 1954. It was successful because the donor and recipient were identical twins with a consequent lack of rejection. So the advances go on.

The fact that we have thousands of transplants taking place around the world today is remarkable and is a blessing for the receiving patients, their families and their loved ones. Most importantly, while the knowledge and skills that have been recently developed are mind-boggling, they will not be of much use without organ donors. Organ donation clinical practices are governed by state and territory human tissues acts, regulations and guidelines, which are generally developed and applied with reference to the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines on ethical organ donation and transplantation practices.

In pursuit of donors, state departments for motor vehicle registrations have asked licensed drivers to nominate themselves as organ donors. This is only indicative, though, expressing intent but not consent. Consent is now established through registering with the Australian Organ Donor Register, provided that the donor is aged 18 or over. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds can only register their intent on the Australian Organ Donor Register. I encourage all Australians to consider registering. We know that organ donations save lives.

On the national reform agenda on organ and tissue donation, the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference announced on 27 July 2006 its intent to increase the rate of safe, effective and ethical organ and tissue donation for transplantation in Australia. The agenda will be advanced by the AHMAC Inter-governmental Committee on Organ and Tissue Donation, no doubt benefiting from the new national expert task force of clinicians and specialists chaired by Professor Jeremy Chapman OAM.

The agenda will no doubt also be advanced by Australians Donate community champions, the first of whom is Winter Olympics medallist Alisa Camplin. Alisa benefited enough from a tendon transplanted just 121 days before the 2006 Winter Olympics to go on and win a bronze medal in skiing. I am sure that we all wish Alisa well in her voluntary role as advocate for the benefits of organ and tissue transplantation, and that her work and that of others continues to build the Organ Donor Register well into the future. I echo the comment made by the member for Shortland in her speech when she said, ‘Don’t bury and burn but donate them.’

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