House debates

Monday, 2 March 2020

Constituency Statements

Organ Donation

10:48 am

Photo of Peta MurphyPeta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Today I want to talk about a subject that is quite difficult for some people and some families but is really important—organ donation and donating your body to science when you pass. It can be a really difficult conversation to have with your loved ones, to ask them what they want done with their body when they die. For people who have a chronic disease or who are facing a shortened life span, it can be really challenging to think about what they want to happen to their body and to their organs when they die. But it is something that you can do that can benefit so many other people outside of yourself. For many people—and I'm one of them—it can give them a sense that their death can contribute to other people not having to go through what they've gone through. So I have registered as an organ donor. No-one wants my organs anymore, because of the illness that I have, but I've made it clear to my husband and my family that I would like my body donated to science when I die.

I heard on the radio this morning as I was walking into Parliament House about a project that is happening in New South Wales where first responders and medical professionals are having training about how to deal with a mass casualty—if, forbid, that ever happens—and they are using real human bodies of people who have died as part of that training. That seems to me a terrific way to be able to contribute to protecting our community.

About a week and a half ago, I went to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. Most people will know that, because of her own personal battle with breast cancer, twice now, Olivia Newton-John has invested a lot of money into a wellness centre and a research institute. The absolutely amazing practitioners and researchers there are looking at ways to have better, more targeted treatment, particularly for breast cancer, and scientists and oncologists are collaborating and sharing information. One of the things they are doing is getting permission from people who are being treated for breast cancer to take samples of their tumours and look at them before and after their treatment to try and isolate the particular cells that might be the ones that have caused malignancy or the ones that might break off and travel and make the malignancy spread.

I would urge anyone who feels they can donate their tissue to register when they are going through treatment—I have told them they can use anything from me that they would like—to help that research go ahead, and to have the difficult conversation with your loved ones, your significant others, about what you want done with your body when you pass away.