With the passage into law of the Human Tissue Act, 2024 – which came into effect on 17 June, 2025 – a patient's organs will be assumed to be available for donation in the event of their demise unless that patient has actively opted out of making them available.
Keelin Murphy undergoes dialysis three times a week for three-and-a-half hours at a time as she waits for a transplant. She told Joe Duffy on Liveline why the new law coming into force will make a difference to her and everybody else waiting for organ transplants:
"In July of last year, I had an operation to actually remove both of my kidneys. I’ve a genetic disease, so I needed to get the two kidneys removed; they’d grown too large, and I’ve been on the transplant list pretty much ever since then."
Joe asked Keelin what she would say to people who might be concerned that the new law might be a step too far:
"I’d just ask people to imagine if it was your child, your parent or someone you love waiting on that call every single day. I’d ask them to think of those of us who are barely living. Like, donating your organs is just an act of pure kindness, and it can transform so many lives."
And Keelin pointed out that, in a world of almost non-stop horror, organ donation shows us at our best:
"Organ donation is just the best of humanity. It just turns someone else’s pain into someone else’s hope and gives all of us who are waiting a chance to live our lives to the full again."
Another person very happy with the change to the law is Chloe, whose mother donated her organs in 2012. She had been in a coma with no visible brain activity and had an organ donation card, so when the medical staff approached the family, they didn’t hesitate:
"We were really happy to go ahead with donating her organs, and absolutely no regrets with doing it. Obviously, it was our mother's wish to do that, so you know, it’s all about respecting her wishes as well at the end of the day, even though she’s not there with us. And it was a huge comfort to our family after she passed away."
Sally is an organ donation recipient, and she told Joe that she welcomed the new law, believing that it will make life on waiting lists a little more bearable:
"I think a lot of education has to come with this, to explain what exactly this is, but like anything new, that takes time, but the wishes of the family are ultimately still going to be followed through and that’s why the biggest thing is that conversation – and not always the easiest conversation to have – but I think making that more in our daily lives so that it can be as simple as explaining to our loved ones, 'Look, these are my wishes when the time comes and I pass on.’"
Joe spoke about his friend, the late Frank Deasy, who died in 2009 while waiting for an organ transplant. Deasy wrote in the Observer newspaper shortly before he died about being one of thousands of people "living on our own, invisible, death row". Frank’s brother Declan joined the chorus of approval for the new law coming into force:
"Today should be a day which becomes a catalyst for more discussion and more narrative and more communication and more awareness-raising, not just on the part of the medical community, but within families."
Declan told Joe that he had been talking to Frank’s wife Marie, and she was delighted that the act was coming into effect:
"And she was keen that Frank’s legacy was remembered because that was what kickstarted it, the wave of requests for donation cards at that time was really quite exceptional."
And Declan gave a shout out to Joe for his contribution to the awareness-raising effort. Frank was on Liveline talking about his situation, only days before he died in a hospital in Edinburgh:
"And thank you, Joe, for what you have done for organ donation. It is something that you should be pleased with."
To which the Liveline host replied simply, "I surely am." He surely should be. And a good news story we should all be pleased with.
