Acting Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan has urged the public to continue supporting organ donation following the rise in organ donation register withdrawals after the medical incident at United Christian Hospital.
Speaking to the media today, Prof Chan said the increase in withdrawals from the Centralised Organ Donation Register might be related to the medical incident involving a liver transplant patient.
She urged the public to be rational and support organ donation as there are more than 2,000 patients waiting for organ transplants each day.
"There is already an investigation going on at the Hospital Authority level about the United Christian Hospital's incident as well as the whole mechanism of reporting blunders. Therefore, we hope society and everyone will separate the two issues," she said.
Prof Chan added the Food & Health Bureau is preparing a consultation on organ donor minimum age, cross donation and an opt-out system where all people are considered donors unless they specifically state otherwise.
"We are now looking at whether we should have the three issues coming together in one consultation or whether we are going to separate them. In the next month or so, we will start the consultation."
