Impact of new legislation on presumed consent on organ donation on liver transplant in Singapore: a preliminary analysis.

Demand for the liver organ for transplantation vastly exceeded the availability of deceased donor organs. A new law, the revised Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA), was implemented in Singapore in July 2004, which allowed for recovering four organs, including liver, for transplant unless the deceased give objection prior to their demise. We set to study the impact of the revised legislation by comparing the number of potential suitable donors, liver recovery surgery, and liver transplants two years before and one year after the implementation. There was no change in the number of suitable donors, but there was an increase in the number of liver recovery surgeries and liver transplantation, and a lower refusal rate among suitable donors. Although the revised legislation helped improve the availability of deceased donor organs moderately, other nonlegislative, supplementary measures are needed to further improve the low organ donation rate.