Funerals-for-organs plan proposed to open hearts and minds to life after death

Paying the funeral costs of people who donate their organs could dramatically boost Australia's donation rate - which is still one of the lowest in the world.

The payment, similar to the baby bonus or the first home owner's grant, was essential to prevent the federal government's $151 million organ donation reform package becoming a ''one-year wonder'', a Canberra nephrologist, Gavin Carney, said yesterday.

Dr Carney, who lectures doctors at The Canberra Hospital, also called for urgent research to be carried out to determine why families often ignore a patient's wishes to donate their organs.

''Many people register and 80 per cent of Australians have declared their willingness to donate their organs, yet in spite of long-established and well-supported hospital programs … the donation rate is steady,'' Dr Carney said.

Some families had reported the experience to be ''traumatic'' and ''shocking'' but it was still unclear why many people were against it, he said.

About 1650 people were on the transplant waiting list in January this year. More than 1300 were waiting for kidneys, 148 for livers and 96 for lungs. The number of donors and those waiting for transplants has remained steady for a decade - but there are still about 500 who miss out each year, most with kidney disease.

Those waiting for kidneys had to undergo dialysis which was ''painful and an endless medical toil'', Dr Carney said.

In 2008, transplant experts from around the world signed an agreement to push for an end to organ trafficking, a common practice in countries such as Pakistan and India where families are desperate for money.

The Declaration of Istanbul decreed that commercial donation ''led inexorably to inequity and injustice and should be prohibited'' because it exploited the impoverished.

Dr Carney believes there are ways to assist donors and their families, such as paying funeral expenses, without breaching the spirit of the declaration.