Organ donation: England will have “opt-out” system from May 2020

England will move to an “opt-out” system of deemed consent for organ donation from May this year, the government has announced.

The move, which follows a consultation,1 means that all adults in England will be considered to have agreed to donate their organs when they die, unless they have decided that they do not want to be a donor or are in an excluded group.

The new law will bring England into line with Wales, which introduced an opt-out system in December 2015 and now has the highest donation consent rates in the UK.2 Scotland is …