Judith Collins - National Party Health Spokeswoman

16 December 2004

Minister whimps on organ donation

The Health Minister has whimped out of accepting key recommendations of the Health Select Committee, says National's Health spokeswoman, Judith Collins.

The recommendations were:

· A dedicated national organ donor register replace the current haphazard system.
· Research is conducted into public awareness and attitudes to organ donation.
· The consideration of a donor register be separated from the Human Tissue Review.
· The Government review the funding of Organ Donation New Zealand.

"This Minister has given in to the powerful do-nothing lobby at the Ministry of Health, and forced the Labour members of the Select Committee to eat humble pie," says Ms Collins.

"Doctors, nurses, patients and their families should be outraged at this blatant disregard for effective and proven measures.

"This is another issue on which this Minister has lost all credibility."

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>