Madam Chair, distinguished guests and members of the Standing Committee on Health, I'd like to begin by telling you a little about the Canadian Organ Donors Association, or CODA.
Since its founding in December 1983, CODA has been working in the community to carry out its mission to promote organ and tissue donation and to ensure national recognition of deceased donors, either posthumously or during their lifetime. CODA also arranges for the transportation of medical teams and organs throughout Quebec.
Since its inception in March of 1987, the survival chain has been maintained with the help of numerous volunteer police officers twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. Since March of 1987, CODA has transported 7,346 organs or tissue donations, has covered over 1,174,594 kilometres and come to the aid of medical teams in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada and in the United States on over 4,691 occasions. We estimate that since our fleet of vehicles went into service 21 years ago, over 11,985 emergency transportation calls have been answered by our association.
Over the years, we have had occasion to work many times with the families of deceased donors as well as with living donors. We have been able to appreciate just how precious these extraordinary donations really are. As you can see, CODA has developed some expertise in this field since undertaking its mission in December 1983 to promote organ and tissue donations, to pay tribute to donors and to acknowledge the medical assistance provided to ensure the safe transportation of medical teams and donated organs and tissue.
We are appearing before the committee today to tell you about one solution that, we confidently feel, will encourage more Canadians to register as organ and tissue donors. We do not claim to know enough to take a stand on the new regulations governing organ donors. We will leave it up to the medical and scientific experts to make the representations that they feel are relevant to this debate.
Nevertheless, we are concerned about the increase observed in recent years in the number of persons waiting for an organ both in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. We believe that everything possible must be done to increase the organ and tissue donor pool. You must not lose sight of the fact that a country's success in the area of organ donation is largely a function of its people's confidence in the fairness, quality and safety of the organ transplantation system.
A tremendous gift
It bears mentioning that [...] to the extent that organ donation combines the grief of the deceased person's family with the hope of persons waiting for a donor, this act can change a person's perception of life and death and help people gain a better understanding of both stages.
As philosopher Jean-Claude Guillebaud observed, organ donation is anything but a benign act. As he goes on to explain, it is one person's tremendous gift to another, the ultimate act of human solidarity, something that clearly goes beyond mere medicine.
In its April 1999 report entitled Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation: A Canadian Approach, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health underscored the crucial role donor families play in the organ donation process and made the following recommendation which, to our way of thinking, is vitally important:
10. The Committee agrees that the donors deserve recognition through their families and recommends that: 10.1 The Governor General of Canada consider offering commemorative medals or plaques in a ceremony to all donor families.
In 1994, CODA officially opened the first memorial garden in North America dedicated to the memory of organ and tissue donors in Canada. Currently, the names of over 2,000 donors are honoured posthumously. For the past 15 years, a memorial ceremony has been held every October at which time family representatives who have consented to allow their loved ones' organs or tissue to be donated receive a donor's medal from Quebec's acting Lieutenant Governor.
For the past several years, the contribution of living donors has also been recognized. This recognition ceremony is conducted with utmost respect for donors who have given of themselves to ensure the health of others. We sincerely belive that this act of public recognition is in line with family needs and ensures their ongoing support for this great and noble cause.
Madam Chair, as I left my office last night, I was going over a letter sent by Québec-Transplant to the mother of a young donor in July 2004. For privacy considerations, I will not disclose the names of the persons involved, but I would like to read the letter to you, because it reflects the tone of my presentation.
Dear Madam: Let me begin by extending to you and to the members of your family our deepest condolences on the death of your daughter Isabelle (pseudonym) on June 13, 2004. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank you warmly for consenting to donate her organs. Through your generosity, several people awaiting transplantation were able to receive a precious gift of a donated organ. From the information we have received to date from the various transplantation centres, the recipients of the liver, pancreas and kidneys are doing very well and have even been discharged from hospital. On behalf of the recipients, their families and the transplant teams, kindly accept our sincere appreciation. We hope that the organ donation process will help ease your sorrow and bring you the peace you need to deal with the grieving process. Enclosed is an invitation from the Canadian Organ Donor Association to have your daughter's name inscribed on a memorial to organ donors in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. This memorial is located in Sherbrooke, Quebec. To ensure that the name of your daughter Isabelle (pseudonym) is inscribed on the memorial, please send a copy of this letter attesting to the fact that she was an organ donor. Of course, you are under no obligation to do so and there is no charge for having her name inscribed on the memorial. Once again, thank you for agreeing to donate the gift of life. Yours sincerely,
This letter was written to Isabelle's mother on July 8, 2004. I will conclude my brief presentation by reading to you another letter that our organization received on April 1 last, nearly four years after this young girl's death.
Good day, Nearly four years have passed since I experienced the pain of losing my young daughter Isabelle (pseudonym). Life goes on and I have regained my health. I have worked hard to learn to live again. For me, attending this ceremony is now something that I need to do. I thank God for giving me the chance to make an organ donation. After the dust settles, the importance of organ donation really hits home. Surely that is what my daughter would tell me. I look forward to hearing from you so that I can close the book on the grieving process. Thank you. Ms. X, mother of Isabelle (pseudonym).
Madam Chair, on behalf of these families, the donors and the thousands of patients awaiting a transplant, I thank you for welcoming us to the committee.