Legal Solutions to Ontario's Organ Shortage: Redrawing the Boundaries of Consent
![handle is hein.journals/hthlj13 and id is 141 raw text is: Legal Solutions to Ontario's Organ Shortage:
Redrawing the Boundaries of Consent
Brent Arnold*
[I]f a gift-of-life ethic is preferred and policy makers cannot solve the
philosophical dispute over emotion in morality, a dispute that divides propo-
nents of altruism and of routine procurement, then policy makers could judge
whether the prevailing model of altruism has received a fair and sufficient test.
This judgment would flow from an initial endorsement of altruism as a
preferred public policy, a policy that may be modified or abandoned when it
proves ineffective or too costly. -Law Reform Commission of Canada'
We thought we were off to a great, great first step. ... Now looking back at
everything, nothing has changed.... I'm doing this alone and I shouldn't have
to do this alone ... Deep, deep down they know they aren't getting it right....
They need a general that will set the tone, lead the charge and address the issues
and get the job done. -George Marcello, transplant recipient2
Introduction
In the 2000 Throne Speech, then-Premier Harris' government accepted as
a millennium challenge the goal of doubling the organ donation rate by 2005.'
Following the recommendations of the Premier's Advisory Board, the government
proceeded by revising and renaming the Human Tissue Gift Act (HTG Act).4
Repackaged as the Trillium Gift of Life Network Act (TGLN Act),' Ontario's new
legislation created a new, independent organ procurement organization (OPO) that
would follow the example of successful OPOs in other jurisdictions by installing
and supervising transplant coordinators in donor hospitals, reimbursing hospitals
for costs associated with organ procurement, and by engaging in massive public
and clinician education campaigns.
.Brent Arnold, M.A. (Queen's), LL.B. (Osgoode Hall Law School). An earlier draft of this paper was
awarded a prize by the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto. The author thanks the Society, and Dr. John R.
Carlisle and Brian J.E. Brock, Q.C. for their comments and guidance.
' Canada, Law Reform Cormnission, Procurement and Transfer of Human Tissues and Organs, (Ottawa:
The Commission, 1992) at 61.
2Valerie Hauch Vital Signs Weak for Transplants: Harris Promise to Double Rate Flops; Political
Leadership Lacking Say Critics The Toronto Star (28 September 2004), online: The Toronto Star
<http://www.thestar.com>.
3 Ontario, Premier's Advisory Board on Organ and Tissue Donation, Organ and Tissue Donation in
Ontario: A Plan for Change andAction: Report ofPremier Harris'Advisory Board on Organ and Tissue
Donation, (Toronto: The Board, May 2000) at 18.
4R.S.O. 1990, c. H.20.
5R.S.O. 1990, c. H.20.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hthlj13&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Legal Solutions to Ontario's Organ Shortage: Redrawing the Boundaries of Consent
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