moved for leave to introduce Bill C-412, an act to establish a National Organ Donor Registry and to coordinate and promote organ donation throughout Canada.
Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to introduce an act to establish a national organ donor registry and to coordinate and promote organ donation throughout Canada. This bill is intended to save lives by ensuring that Canadians in need of life-saving organs can benefit from the most efficient and coordinated system of identifying and matching donors to meet the need.
Improving our low donation rate of 15 per million is critically important. So too is improving coordination so we are able to receive the best possible outcome from organ donations that are made. Those who do receive organs are living longer and healthier lives.
Nearly 150 of the more than 3,500 Canadians on transplant lists die each year while waiting. It is my belief and the belief of many others that we can benefit from the registry set out in this bill and that we can make a difference in the lives of Canadians who are desperately in need of organs today.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)