Bill C-527

2nd Session, 39th Parliament,

56-57 Elizabeth II, 2007-2008

house of commons of canada

BILL C-527

An Act to establish a National Organ Donor Registry and to coordinate and promote organ donation throughout Canada

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

SHORT TITLE

1. This Act may be cited as the Organ Donor Registry Act.

INTERPRETATION

2. The definitions in this section apply in this Act.

“Minister” means the Minister of Health.

“organ” includes any form of human tissue.

“organ donor” means a person who has consented to the use of all the organs or one or more specified organs of the person on death — or for whom such consent has been given by another person — and who will donate according to the laws of the province in which the person resided at the time the consent was given, or in which the donor dies or becomes incapable of giving consent.

“participating province” means a province that has enacted legislation that meets the requirements of this Act and that has entered into an agreement with the Minister under section 8.

“recipient” means a person who receives or who is intended to receive an organ from an organ donor.

“Registrar” means the person appointed as Registrar of Organ Donors under section 4.

“Registry” means the National Organ Donor Registry established under section 3.

NATIONAL ORGAN DONOR REGISTRY

3. (1) The Registrar shall establish and maintain a registry, to be known as the National Organ Donor Registry.

(2) The Registry shall consist of

(a) a compilation of information on organ donors and recipients; or

(b) a system that links such compilations held by others and facilitates access to such compilations.

(3) The Registrar may destroy information kept in the Registry at the times and in the circumstances that may be prescribed by regulation.

(4) For greater certainty, the Registry may be partly or entirely in electronic form.

STAFF

4. (1) The Registry shall be administered by a chief executive officer appointed by the Minister as Registrar of Organ Donors.

(2) The Registrar shall report to the Minister as the Minister directs.

(3) Any employees necessary to enable the Registrar to perform his or her duties and functions under this Act shall be appointed in accordance with the Public Service Employment Act.

OBJECTS

5. (1) The objects of the Registry are

(a) to store, or provide a link between, information on organ donors in participating provinces;

(b) to maintain the information in a form that allows it to be provided quickly to persons authorized by a participating province to receive it for the purpose of identifying individuals who have consented or who may consent to be organ donors; and

(c) to match potential organ donors with recipients quickly and effectively.

(2) The information in the Registry shall be kept confidential except as necessary to fulfill the objects of the Registry.

PARTICIPATING PROVINCES

6. The Registrar shall consult with the provinces in order to develop a national standard for the purposes of subsection 7(1) and shall ensure that as many provinces as possible become participating provinces.

7. (1) For a province to become a participating province, it must make an agreement with the Minister under section 8 and it must have legislation that conforms to the national stand-ard developed under section 6 respecting

(a) the manner in which an organ donor or, on the organ donor’s incapacity or death, a person specified to consent on the organ donor’s behalf may consent to organ donation;

(b) an organ donor’s right to refuse to donate any specified organ;

(c) situations in which a donation is revo-cable, including whether the organ donor’s next of kin have the right to revoke a prior agreement to donate made by a deceased organ donor;

(d) the procedure by which a determination of the death of an organ donor prior to removal of an organ must be made;

(e) the procedure by which the medical suitability of an organ donor must be determined;

(f) the sharing of information between prov-inces; and

(g) the overall management of organ donation within the province.

(2) The legislation of each participating province shall set out the procedures to be followed within the province respecting

(a) the promotion of organ donation within the province;

(b) notification of the appropriate agency of the death or imminent death of a person who is or who may become an organ donor;

(c) the training of hospital staff who may be required to approach the families of patients for consent to the donation of an organ; and

(d) record-keeping and the production of statistics.

8. (1) A province wishing to become a participating province shall submit to the Registrar a draft of its legislation.

(2) The Registrar shall inform the province of any concerns that the Registrar has in respect of the draft legislation or, if the Registrar is of the opinion that the draft legislation complies with all of the requirements set out in section 7, make a recommendation to the Minister that the province become a participating province.

(3) Once the Minister has received the recommendation from the Registrar, the Minister may enter into an agreement with the province concerned that allows the province to become a participating province.

REPORT TO PARLIAMENT

9. (1) The Registrar shall, not later than April 1 in every year, prepare and submit to the Minister a report on the operation of the Registry during the previous year containing any recommendations the Registrar may wish to make concerning the Registry or organ donation in Canada.

(2) The Minister shall cause the report submitted under subsection (1) to be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the first fifteen days on which that House is sitting after the day on which the Minister receives the report.

(3) The report referred to in subsection (2), shall be referred to the appropriate committee of each House, as determined by the rules of that House, for consideration and report to the House.

(4) The committee of each House referred to in subsection (3) shall be the Standing Committee on Health or, in the event that there is not a Standing Committee on Health, the appropriate committee of each House.

(5) The committees shall review the report and shall cause its review and any recommendations to be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the first fifteen days on which that House is sitting after the day on which the review is completed.