Islwyn MP Chris Evans has backed a campaign by the British Heart Foundation to introduce presumed consent with organ donations.
The UK currently has an ‘opt in’ system where people sign up to a national register. It is often cited that 90% of the public support organ donation but only 30% of people are registered donors.
Under an ‘opt out’ system a person’s consent would be presumed unless they, or their family, decide otherwise.
Mr Evans said: “In Wales almost 300 people are waiting for an organ transplant and last year 35 people died while waiting. Despite most people supporting organ donation too few people actually get round to signing the organ donation register.
“The introduction of an opt out system would be the best way to tackle this problem and end the shortage of organ donors.”
The Welsh Government has long had plans to introduce presumed consent in Wales and intends to publish a White Paper outlining a system of “soft” presumed consent. It wants to introduce a new law in 2012.
While it has said people’s families would still be consulted when a death has occurred, the Archbishop of Wales has voiced concerns.
In an address to the governing body of the Church in Wales in September this year, he said: “Organ donation surely ought to be a matter of gift and not of duty.
“Giving organs is the most generous act of self giving imaginable but it has to be a choice that is freely embraced, not something that the state assumes.
“Put more crudely, it can turn volunteers into conscripts.
“I think that compromises individual rights and freedoms and poses the moral question as to whether the state can make such decisions.”