Bill C-527 (Historical)

Organ Donor Registry Act

An Act to establish a National Organ Donor Registry and to coordinate and promote organ donation throughout Canada (Organ Donor Registry Act)

This bill was last introduced in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session, which ended in September 2008.

Sponsor

Judy Wasylycia-Leis  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of March 13, 2008
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

The purpose of this enactment is to establish a National Organ Donor Registry. The Registry may consist of a system that links existing data and may be partly or entirely in electronic form. The Registry is to be administered by a chief executive officer known as the Registrar of Organ Donors.
The enactment requires the Registrar to consult with the provinces in order to bring about sufficient conformity in provincial human organ donation legislation to allow the Registry to operate.
The Minister may enter into agreements with the provinces to allow them to participate in the program being established by this enactment if they have sufficiently conforming legislation. The enactment provides for confidentiality and mandates an annual report.
The enactment will facilitate the establishment of a fully national information exchange on organ donation between provinces.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Organ Donor Registry ActRoutine Proceedings

March 13th, 2008 / 10:05 a.m.
See context

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-527, 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 on this World Kidney Day to introduce an act to establish a national organ donor registry and to coordinate and promote organ donation throughout Canada.

The 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 needs.

We are painfully aware of the urgent need to improve our organ donation system. More than 4,000 Canadians are currently awaiting an organ transplant. One hundred and forty-six Canadians died in 2007 while awaiting for an organ. Of the 242 who died while waiting the year before, 73 were waiting for a kidney.

It is my belief and the belief of many others that we can benefit from this kind of legislation. It 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)