Kidney Donors (Hansard, 26 November 1980)

§ 8. Mr. Dalyell
asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he has any conveniently available statistics of kidney donation in Scotland since the broadcast of the BBC "Panorama" programme on 13 October purporting to cast doubt on the criteria of death applied by British doctors when deciding whether to ask relatives for use of kidneys from a potential donor.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Russell Fairgrieve)
In the five weeks since the programme was shown, there have been eight kidney transplant operations in Scotland compared with six operations in the corresponding period last year; but it is too soon to predict the long-term effect of the programme, which falsely implied that some American patients who recovered at the eleventh hour would have been pronounced dead under the British code of practice. This was a grievously wrong and damaging misrepresentation.

§ Mr. Dalyell
Delicate though the relations between any Government and the BBC must be, would it not be proper to make representations about Mr. David Dimbleby's claim that doctors should not have the opportunity to present their case on the highly emotive and technical question of brain death, as they wish, because, according to Dimbleby, it would be a party political broadcast? Is not that outrageous?

§ Mr. Fairgrieve
I accept almost everything that the hon. Gentleman says. These are important issues. A leader in today's issue of The Times says: no serious critic has contended that it was defensible for the programme to present with dramatic prominence, in the context of the British code for recognizing brain death, four patients who had mistakenly been identified as dead in the United States, 426 without making it clear that they could never have been so identified under the British code. It was nothing less than sharp practice to cut an interview with a British doctor in such a way that he seemed to be commenting (most lamely) on these cases when in fact he did not know that they would be mentioned". I agree with the hon. Gentleman. It behoves us all to bring the maximum pressure to bear on the BBC and to work with the medical profession to try to right this grievous wrong. It is most unfortunate that the programme that should have been transmitted earlier this week did not take place. We must exert pressure to have that remedied.

§ Mr. McQuarrie
The House will welcome the programme last night in which members of the BMA appeared and in which it was clearly shown that there was no risk to donors in offering kidneys. I sincerely hope that my hon. Friend will encourage the restoration of confidence in people's being kidney donors. I hope that those who tore up their cards because of that dreadful programme will put new cards in their pockets in case they can be of use to some poor person who requires a new kidney.

§ Mr. Fairgrieve
I thank my hon. Friend for his helpful intervention. I believe that this is a matter of the utmost importance. May I make another brief quotation? I think that this is important—[Hon. Members: "No."] It is important. Dr. Benjamin Bradley, who is the director of the United Kingdom transplant centre in Bristol, is reported as saying: We think there have been about 100 operations lost as a result of the programme.
Perhaps I might remind right hon. and hon. Members of what that means. It means already that about 100 people have to make a journey three times a week to hospital to a renal dialysis machine and be on that machine for between five and eight hours. They are being denied a full life because of this programme.

§ Dr. M. S. Miller
Although I am sure that the House will be grateful to the Minister for his indignant protest, is it not an indication of the impotence of this House in a matter of life and death such as this that no pressure appears capable of being brought on the BBC to put the record straight in this connection? Is it not time that in cases such as this, where, as I said previously, it is a matter of life and death, some action should be taken to convince the BBC that something must be done about implications of this kind, which are wrong?

§ Mr. Fairgrieve
It is obvious that the hon. Gentleman has been reading the press since this disgraceful programme was transmitted, and he must be grateful to his hon. Friend the Member for West Lothian (Mr. Dalyell) for raising the matter. On this issue, the maximum pressure is coming from everyone in the country, whatever his political allegiance. I hope that it is successful and that the BBC' will put right this disgraceful wrong.