A senior leader in the Catholic Church is asking the Government to drop plans to introduce 'opt-out' consent for organ and tissue donation in England.

The call was made as the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill came before the House of Commons for debate on Friday.

At present, people must opt in to give their consent by registering as an organ donor, but the Bill would change this so that consent was assumed unless individuals stated otherwise by opting out.

Bishop Paul Mason, the Catholic bishop for healthcare, said that voluntary organ donation was an 'intrinsic good' and something that the Catholic Church in England and Wales encourages.  However, he said that an opt-out system of consent would encroach on individual freedoms.

'When consent is 'deemed' to have been given, organ donation is no longer a gift,' he said.

'The Government's plans to introduce 'opt-out' consent for organ and tissue donation in England undermine the concept of donation as a gift.

'It crosses the line of what constitutes a reasonable action by the state towards individuals in a free society.'

While the intention behind the Bill is to resolve the shortage of organ donors, Bishop Mason said switching to an opt-out system would not necessarily change things for the better.

He pointed to the example of Wales, where the number of organ donors fell in the first two years after the opt-out system was introduced in December 2015. 

Bishop Mason said the Government should instead encourage discussions around organ donation to help people make informed choices.

'Rather than deeming consent where it might or might not be present, the key to organ donation is to obtain consent and to encourage people to have the conversations that will enable them to make informed choices about their loved ones,' he said.

Similar concerns have been raised by Christian advocacy group CARE, which said that the changes could lead to a fall in the number of organ donors because people may be offended by the idea of the state presuming their consent. 

It is instead urging the Government to prioritise resources on training more organ donation nurses so that families can be better informed about their options.

'Both ethically and from the point of view of the international evidence, shifting to an opt-out system is problematic and not guaranteed to work,' CARE said.

'In fact, it diverts money away from measures that have been proven to work in increasing the number of organs available for transplantation.

'That's why we are calling on the Government to instead recruit more specialist nurses because we believe this is one measure that is proven to help increase the number of organ donations.'

Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, recently warned that an opt-out system would likely increase the number of people on the organ donation register but not the actual number of organ donors. 

Their study looked at 1,000 people living in countries with opt-in and opt-out systems, and found that those in countries with opt-out consent were less likely to believe that an individual's 'true wish' had been to donate their organs.

They concluded that in opt-out systems, families were more likely to veto organ donation by their loved ones for fear that it was not what they truly wanted.

Lead author of the study, Dr Magda Osman, was quoted by The Telegraph as saying: 'If you have an organ donation register that presumes consent, then it is harder for a third party to tell if you being on the register reflects what you genuinely intended.

'As it is, family veto rates are high in systems where there is an opt-in system, so by implication, our findings suggest that veto rates would certainly not fall as a result of introducing an opt-out system, if anything it would create greater problems, particularly ethical ones.'