Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela said that government would extend the parameters of organ donation laws to introduce organ donation after circulatory deaths.

Abela was speaking in parliament in reply to questions by PL MP Rosianne Cutajar, saying that he would build on a Private Members’ Bill presented by the PN months ago to implement the concept of 'opt-out' from organ donation in Malta, by facilitating organ donation after a patient has a circulatory death.

He explained that currently, specialists can retrieve organs from a patient once they have been certified as braindead.

Abela said he would go beyond the PN’s bill and extend the parameters and eligibility to patients who have had a circulatory death, meaning that organs may be harvested when a patient's circulatory and respiratory functions have stopped, and a physician pronounces their death.

He said that this measure has already been introduced in countries such as the UK, Portugal and Spain, which has led to a 25% increase in their organ transplant and donation figures.

Abela said that he had backed the PN’s bill which introduced an ‘opt out’ system rather than the current ‘opt-in’ system where a person chooses to donate their organs for transplant when they die.

He said that specialists must be trained for this role, and the infrastructure must be expanded, in line with government’s solid visions for the health sector.