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Bill C-223

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First Session, Forty-second Parliament,

64-65 Elizabeth II, 2015-2016

HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA

BILL C-223
An Act to establish the Canadian Organ Donor Registry and to coordinate and promote organ donation throughout Canada
FIRST READING, February 19, 2016

Mr. Aboultaif
421098


SUMMARY

The purpose of this enactment is to establish the Canadian Organ Donor Registry. The Registry is a compilation of information on organ donors and recipients and a system that links to compilations held by third parties. The enactment provides for the confidentiality of all information contained in the Registry or accessible through it.

The enactment also provides for the development of a national strategy to promote organ donation in Canada and facilitate the exchange of information on organ donation between provinces.

Finally, it mandates an annual report.

Available on the House of Commons website at the following address:
www.ourcommons.ca


1st Session, 42nd Parliament,

64-65 Elizabeth II, 2015-2016

HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA

BILL C-223

An Act to establish the Canadian 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

Short title

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

Interpretation

Definitions

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) a person who has consented — according to the laws of the province in which they reside — to donate one or more specified organs while still alive;

  • (b) a person who has consented — according to the laws of the province in which they resided at the time the consent was given — to the use of all organs or one or more specified organs upon their death; or

  • (c) a person for whom another person has given consent — according to the laws of the province in which the donor died or became incapable of giving consent — to the use of all organs or one or more specified organs of the person upon their death.

Canadian Organ Donor Registry

Registry established

3 (1) For the purpose of facilitating the exchange of information on organ donation between provinces, the Minister must establish and maintain a registry, to be called the Canadian Organ Donor Registry.

Content of Registry

(2) The Registry is to be a compilation of information on organ donors and recipients as well as a system that links to such compilations and facilitates access to them when they are held by third parties.

Purpose of Registry

4 (1) The purpose of the Canadian Organ Donor Registry is

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

  • (b) to maintain the information in a format 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 organ donors with recipients quickly and effectively.

Confidential information

(2) The information that is contained in the Registry, or that is accessible through it, is confidential and may only be disclosed to fulfill the purpose of the Registry.

Participating provinces

5 The Minister may enter into an agreement with a province that allows it to become a participating province.

National Strategy on Organ Donation

National Strategy

6 For the purpose of promoting organ donation in Canada and facilitating the exchange of information on organ donation between provinces, the Minister, in cooperation with the provincial ministers responsible for health, must develop a national strategy on organ donation that includes provisions on

  • (a) the manner in which an organ donor or a person authorized, on the organ donor’s incapacity or death, to act 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) the situations in which a donation is revocable, including whether an organ donor’s next of kin have the right to revoke a prior consent to donate made by an incapacitated or deceased organ donor;

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

  • (e) the procedure by which a determination of the death of an organ donor prior to removal of an organ is to be made;

  • (f) the procedure to notify the appropriate agency of the death or imminent death of a person who is or may become an organ donor;

  • (g) the procedure by which the medical suitability of an organ donor is to be determined;

  • (h) the sharing of information between provinces; and

  • (i) the overall management of organ donation in Canada.

Regulations

Regulations

7 The Governor in Council may make regulations for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act, including regulations respecting the destruction of information contained in the Canadian Organ Donor Registry.

Report to Parliament

Annual report

8 (1) The Minister must, not later than April 1 in every year, prepare a report on the operation of the Canadian Organ Donor Registry and the effectiveness of the national strategy during the previous year, setting out his or her conclusions and recommendations concerning the Registry and the national strategy.‍

Tabling in Parliament

(2) The Minister must cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the first 15 days on which that House is sitting after April 1.‍

Published under authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons

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