The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has backed away from his robust advocacy of presumed consent for organ donation. Only a few days ago he wrote in the London Telegraph that he favoured a system like Spain's "to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery and the limits imposed by our current [opt-in] system of consent”. The idea was not well received in the media. Now health secretary Alan Johnson says that the PM was just sending up a trial balloon for a national debate. instead the government has accepted the idea proposed by a taskforce of promoting donation throughout the UK, a move which apparently will boost transplants by 1,200 a year. In any case, says the government, it now appears that the secret of Spain's success in encouraging organ donation is not presumed consent on its own, but a network of coordinators and doctors. ~ Guardian, Jan 17