The Jalisco Congress has approved reforms to the Jalisco Health Law and the state Civil Code that will allow a person to donate their organs without family or third party consent as long as the deceased has designated him/herself as a donor.
The reforms end a four-year tug-of-war between legislators and civic organizations.
Legislator Enrique Velázquez, one of the promoters of the reforms, said that even though many people agree to be donors, their grieving families step in as when they are on their death bed and refuse to allow their organs to be removed.
Currently in Jalisco, around 8,000 people are waiting for a kidney, 3,000 for a cornea, and many others for heart, lung, skin, bones and tissue transplants. Velázquez said 500 transplants were carried out in the state last year but the new laws will allow hundreds more people to receive new organs.
It is a common misconception that organs can only be donated only from a living body, although only functioning organs are sometimes donated. Most donated organs come from people whose brains have irreversibly ceased to function and who are considered dead.
Under the new law, a state registry of donors, as well as people who specifically do not wish to be designated as non-donors, will be set up.