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Legal framework vs ethics

A debate was triggered when a mother who needed kidney transplantation was denied to the organs of her dying daughter.

Rachel Leake and her daughter

Laura Ashworth, 21, was wishing to help her mother when she joined NHS organ donation register, but her kidneys were given to strangers after dying of an asthma attack in April.

The 39-year-old mother Rachel Leake, from Bierley, West Yorkshire, who’s had kidney failure for seven years.

Ms Ashworth told her mother that she had been prepared to be a "living donor", but had never been formally recorded, which means her kidneys could not have been given to her mother according to the Human Tissue Act 2004.

In the end, her kidneys and liver went to save three patients lives’ from the UK Transplant waiting list.

listen to Dr Bithell

Ms Leake felt angry and ridiculous for the decision that had been made by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA).

Dr Claire Bithell, media manager of HTA, thinks it was a right decision to allocate Ms Ashworth's organs to strangers.

At the same time, Keith Rigg, Vice president of the British Transplantation Society, believes there should be an exception for patients’ organs to go to their loved ones after their death.

listen to Keith Rigg

The family's MP Gerry Sutcliffe said: “I think we need to look at whether there ought to be more flexibility in the system, although I accept that there are some very serious and complex moral and ethical issues at stake here.”

Ms Leake's 50-year-old sister Carole Spence has been registered as her living donor and passed all the tests, but the family hoped Laura's organs could be used instead when the accident happened.