SIBU: State DAP chairman Richard Wong Ho Leng said nobody should be forced to donate organs as it violated human rights.
Wong views the donation as a charitable and noble act but said it should be according to the wishes of donors.
He was referring to a 14-day opinion poll conducted by the Health Ministry to collect statistics on whether the people want to opt in or out of the organ donation drive before coming up with a legislation to pass a draft in Parliament.
Those who decide to opt in need to fill in their names and those who opt out also need to fill in their names, failing which their organs would be automatically removed from their bodies upon their deaths.
Wong said the collection of public opinion on the official website of the Health Ministry alone would not fully reflect the views of the majority of people.
He said the Health Ministry should solicit for the views of the people through various sources such as newspapers, TV stations, social networking sites and associations.
“After all, a lot of people do not know about the survey conducted by the Health Ministry and many people have no access to the Internet. As such, the data collected from the website would not be accurate,” he said.
Wong, who is Sibu MP and Bukit Assek assemblyman, stressed that organ donation should be a voluntary move by individuals, rather than through legislation to force people to donate.
He said its promotion should be a long term effort, not confined to 14 days of hasty legislation that could cause the move to backfire.
He suggested the government emulate the examples of other nations in their drive to get more people to donate.
He suggested it allow the people to express their wish on whether to be organ donors when applying for MyKad or driving licence.
“Such effort will create more awareness and spread the concept of organ donation among the people.”
Wong said people willing to fill in the forms to pledge to donate their organs could have the information incorporated into their driving licences or MyKads.
“Better still, the government add an organ donation column on the voter registration form so those who register to vote can decide whether they want to donate their organs upon death.”
Wong said the relevant authorities must carry out a long-term education to educate parents and students on organ donation.
“The Ministry of Education can promote it through the media and textbooks to instill knowledge of it to allay the people’s fears.”