The island could be set to establish an opt out organ donation register if a private member’s bill passes.

The Organ Donation (Isle of Man) Bill 2018 is set to be put before the House of Keys by Garff MHK Martyn Perkins, who received permission in October 2017 to bring forward the bill.

At present the island, like Scotland and Northern Ireland, has an opt in register where people have to state their intention to donate their organs upon the event of their death.

However in England and Wales, as well as Jersey and Guernsey, residents have to opt out from the register, which operates under a system of presumed consent.

Since Wales became the first health system in the British Isles to operate under an opt out system, the donor consent rate has risen from 58% to 75% in just the three years up to 2018.

And Mr Perkins said he wants the island to see a similar rise in the number of people donating their organs.

Speaking to the Examiner, Mr Perkins said: ’We were going to follow the Welsh legislation because England wasn’t looking at bringing it in then a private member’s bill in England suddenly came through so we’re going to follow their system.

’This means that unless someone has opted out, upon their death, their organs will go straight into the English system.’

Mr Perkins said that because of the island’s medical link with England, the only additional cost to the taxpayer would be for the removal of organs as the administration work would be done by the English NHS.

He noted that as more organ donors become available through an opt out system, the costs to healthcare systems could decrease. Each patient on dialysis for kidney problems, for example, costs the English NHS about £30,000 per year and many of the patients have a lower quality of life.

However, a transplant costs in the region of £17,000 per patient and immunosuppression required by a patient with a transplant costs £5,000 per patient per year.

Beyond the financial implications for the health service, many patients’ quality of life improve significantly following a transplant as they no longer need daily dialysis.

Mr Perkins, who hopes to move his Bill in the coming weeks, said he believes he has the support of members.

He said: ’We’ve had a public consultation, which was very positive, and the members [MHKs] are very much in support of it. It doesn’t change much what happens now, but it just formalises the system.’

Mr Perkins accepts that not everyone will want to donate their organs but said they just have to ’opt out, it’s as simple as that’.