Latest news with #ColinWhite
BBC News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
🎧 Gibbs-White's uncertain future and Europa League for Forest?
A new episode of Shut Up And Show More Football is now available to listen to and download on BBC Radio Nottingham's David Jackson and Colin White discuss Morgan Gibbs-White's future amid dramatic developments in his potential move to Tottenham and whether Forest will be in the Europa League next season after Uefa's ruling on Crystal to the full episode on BBC Sounds
Irish Independent
14-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
21-year-old Meath woman on dialysis hopes new digital donor card will save lives
The development comes just three weeks after the Department of Health commenced part two of the Human Tissue Act (transplantation), addressing the issue of consent for organ donation and highlighting the importance of sharing wishes with family. While the association previously offered a digital donor card app as well as the physical card, the new digital card can be added to apple and google wallets, making the use easier. Lana was born with bilateral kidney dysplasia and received a kidney transplant when she was four-years old, allowing her to experience childhood and most of her teenage years. The kidney began to fail in 2023 and she is now on the waiting list for a transplant while undergoing dialysis treatment three times a week for a period of 3.5 hours per session at Beaumont Hospital. Lana is hoping for the call about a suitable match from a deceased donor, and there is also the chance a matching living donor may be found. "I feel incredibly fortunate to have received a kidney transplant, and I hope this digital donor card initiative helps others understand the importance of organ donation. "This new card will make it easier for people to show their support and potentially save and transform lives, just as mine was,' Lana said. Under Ireland's new organ donation law, all adults will be considered potential organ donors unless they officially register their objection via the HSE Opt Out Register. In the event that someone is identified as a potential organ donor and has not registered their objection, family will be approached, and donation cannot proceed without their consent. Having an Organ Donor Card, including the new digital version, or code 115 on your driver's licence, acts as a clear reminder of the decision to consent to organ donation. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more As of the latest figures reported by the Department of Health, over 670 people are currently on waiting lists for organ transplants in Ireland. More than 80% of these are waiting for kidney transplants, while others are in urgent need of heart, lung, liver, or pancreas transplants. National advocacy and projects manager at the Irish Kidney Association, Colin White said: 'In now providing a digital Organ Donor Card, the Irish Kidney Association is embracing the latest technology that has become such an integral part of our daily lives. 'It's about keeping organ donation front of mind and giving hope to those who are waiting for a second chance at life.' White is encouraging the public to download the organ donor card available from the Irish Kidney Association website.
Globe and Mail
02-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
UBS Sticks to Its Hold Rating for Novartis AG (NOVN)
UBS analyst Colin White maintained a Hold rating on Novartis AG (NOVN – Research Report) today. The company's shares opened today at CHF96.65. Don't Miss TipRanks' Half-Year Sale Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. According to TipRanks, White is an analyst with an average return of -3.7% and a 55.56% success rate. White covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bayer. The word on The Street in general, suggests a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating for Novartis AG with a CHF102.78 average price target. The company has a one-year high of CHF102.72 and a one-year low of CHF81.10. Currently, Novartis AG has an average volume of 3.74M.
RTÉ News
16-06-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
Opt-out organ donation act to come into effect from tomorrow
The first phase of the Human Tissue Act 2024 is due to come into operation from tomorrow, meaning everybody will be considered an organ donor unless they opt-out or are included in a so-called excluded group. The act will introduce an opt-out system of consent for organ donation and will allow for altruistic living organ donation to strangers. The National Advocacy and Projects Manager with the Irish Kidney Association said the new laws governing the process of organ donation consider everybody to be a "potential organ donor". Colin White said those who wish to opt-out of donation "will have the ability to put their details in the HSE's opt-out register". "In the event of them being identified as a potential organ donor, the family will not be approached and their wishes will be respected," he said. Speaking on RTÉ's News at One programme, Mr White said that anyone who has not opted out will be deemed to have consented to organ donation, adding that less than 1% of deaths annually result in circumstances where organ donation is a possibility. "More importantly, the role of the family that we currently have in relation to giving final consent for organ donation to go ahead remains in the legislation," he said. "It's very clearly stated in the legislation that if the individual has not opted out, the medical practitioner must reassure themselves that the family has no objection to organ donation going ahead," he added. Mr White said the Irish Kidney Organisation is urging the public to discuss their wishes in relation to organ donation with their family. "Empower your family to be your advocate in the event of you being a potential organ donor," he said. Mr White said the legislation on its own would not be a major "game changer". "We've seen this legislation roll out in other jurisdictions and the general feeling is that, by itself, it's not a game changer," he said. But he said the kidney association "would view it as a very positive piece in the overall jigsaw that makes up organ donation for transplantation". He added: "It's changing the public narrative from querying whether organ donation is something people have considered, to asking the question: is there any reason they'd have to object to organ donation going ahead?"
The Journal
13-06-2025
- Health
- The Journal
FactCheck: How will Ireland's new system for organ donation work?
IRELAND IS SET to enact a new opt-out organ donation system, which has led to questions about consent, bodily autonomy, and the role of the State in medical decisions. The Human Tissue (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Act 2024 was signed into law more than a year ago; parts of it, including a new 'opt-out' organ donation system, will come into effect on 17 June . According to a explanatory memorandum submitted to the Oireachtas, the bill was intended to 'support and increase organ donation and transplantation in Ireland' by creating a 'soft opt-out system of consent'. This means that people who don't want to donate organs are expected to let their wishes known, rather than the other way around. The memorandum also says the bill will embed the idea that 'consent is the defining principle across all practices related to human tissue'. In other words, people or their families need to give permission over what happens to their bodies after death. However, not all commentators have seen the bill this way. Criticisms of the bill aired in the Oireachtas, when it was the subject of seven debates, ( which can be read here ), including concerns about increases to hospitals' administrative burden, or how data is collected. However, after dozens of amendments — a normal part of the passage of legislation through the Dáil and Seanad — it appears that the Act in its current form enjoys broad support. Online commentators have taken more extreme issues with the Act, and what it has set out to do, taking issue with the very idea of opting-out of organ donation. 'Do you want the state to have ownership over your organs???' reads the caption on a Facebook video, viewed more than 55,000 times since it was posted in May. 'The State will take ownership of the organs of all of its citizens under presumed consent, with the introduction of the Human Tissue Act,' a woman in the video says to camera. The video's description reads: 'If you don't protect domain over your own body, the State can inject and implant whatever they see fit.' But how exactly does the Human Tissue Act change things? Does it mean that the State will own your organs once parts of the legislation become law next week? How organ donation works now Experts who spoke with The Journal said that the new legislation was the first of its kind in Ireland. 'The Human Tissue Act itself is quite a beast,' Colin White, the National Advocacy and Projects Manager with the Irish Kidney Association has said. 'It covers a large, large area. Transplantation and organ donation is only Part Two of the [six-part] legislation.' He also pointed out that the law has not yet been enacted because the Government has sought to figure out how to set up parts of the system, such as the opt-out register. Karen Kilraine, Barrister at Law at The Law Library also told The Journal that organ donation and transplantation in Ireland was largely governed by medical guidelines, ethical guidelines and the principle of consent before now. 'There is no statutory regulatory authority equivalent to the Human Tissue Authority in the UK,' she explained. The Human Tissue Authority in the UK regulates post-mortems, organ donation and transplantation, as the use of human bodies for research, anatomy training, public displays, or medical treatment. The current system in Ireland effectively means that the main considerations for organ donation are the wishes of an individual donor's family, as well as confirmation that the donor is dead. White outlined how this works in practical terms. 'To be in the position to be a potential organ donor, typically you have to be in an intensive care unit on a life support machine, and two independent doctors have to declare you brain stem dead,' he said. 'At that point, the possibility of organ donation can be broached.' There were 263 organ transplants performed in 2024, including 84 from deceased people and 30 from living donors, according to the HSE . The majority of these (175) were kidney donations. (A single dead donor can give multiple organs to separate recipients. For example, both kidneys can be transplanted). White noted that only about 1-2% of people who die will do so in such a way that they are eligible for organ donation. Statistics from other countries give even lower figures . This is largely due to the need for such organs to be recovered shortly after death, but also because the cause of death might damage a person's organs. Initially, Ireland's organ donation system focused primarily on kidney donations. 'The organ donor card was introduced by the Irish Kidney Association back in the late '70s,' White said. 'Originally it was the Kidney Donor Card, because the kidney was the organ that was being mostly transplanted. For the other organs, the science hadn't quite got there. 'Over time, that has morphed into the organ donor card that we know today. The Irish Kidney Association is still responsible. Every single organ donor card that's in the country comes out of our office.' However, despite what many people believe, the card itself doesn't have any legal weight. 'The donor card has space for two signatures on the back of it, one for the owner and one for a person's next of kin,' White explained. 'The idea is then that they take the card and go to a family member and say, 'Here, there's a space for you to sign this. Will you sign here?' 'That's its primary function — it's an icebreaker into the conversation about organ donation. Because typically, it's not something that comes up at the dinner table 'How was your day, dear? And, oh, by the way, in the event of me being a potential organ donor, would you make sure it goes ahead, please?'' Whether or ot not a person has a card, the family of a deceased potential donor will be approached for consent to donate their organs. 'Even if the deceased carries a donor card, their next of kin (as in nearest relatives) still have to consent to the donation,' barrister Karen Kilraine said. Ultimately, both the card and the conversations it may have prompted are only a guide to a family's decision after a person has died. Advertisement What will change under the new law? Under the incoming rules, an opt-out register will be set up, whereby people can register that they do not want to donate their organs after death. There are no plans for an equivalent opt-in register. 'If somebody feels 'I'd rather not be considered a potential organ donor, I'd rather not have my family to have to address that question', they will be able to go to a HSE-run register and record their details,' White told The Journal. 'So in the event that they die in the circumstances where organ donation is a possibility, the first step from the hospital will be to consult the opt-out register.' People who are not included on the register will be 'deemed to consent' to organ donation. However, that is not the end of the legal hurdles. As under the previous system, a person's next-of-kin still has to agree to the donation. The new legislation formalises the concept of a 'designated family member', and will rank these in order, from spouses and civil partners, through siblings, down to friends. If more than one person shares the highest applicable rank, just a single objection is enough to stop an organ from being donated. 'Where a deceased person is not on that register and there is therefore 'deemed consent', a doctor cannot remove organs unless what is termed a 'designated family member' has confirmed in writing that they have no objection to donation,' Kilraine told The Journal. 'The Act does not change that. The decision with respect to organ donation is ultimately settled after death and by someone other than the deceased.'' Given these new restrictions, how is the new system expected to increase the number of organ donations rather than discourage them? 'The idea behind it is to try and kind of make it more the cultural norm, that it's part of the dying process,' White said. 'Under the current system, the conversation might be 'did your loved one have an organ donor card?', or 'did you ever have a conversation about organ donation?', or 'do you think organ donation is something that they would have considered?' — that kind of phraseology.' 'After 17 June, the question will be more about, as the legislation says, 'Is there any reason you think your loved one would have objected to organ donation or not want to have been considered?'' Further restrictions But the legislation still places further restrictions around organ donation after a person dies. Over six chapters, Section 2 of the Human Tissue Act breaks down the rules, principles, and priorities that have to be accounted for during the process. These are too long to delve into in detail, but generally, the Act takes a cautious tone when it comes to donating a dead person's organs. 'In the absence of 'opting out', all adults who are 18 years of age or above, ordinarily resident in the State for 12 months or more, who do not lack capacity and or have not for a significant period of time before their death are deemed to consent to organ donation,' Kilraine said. 'People not satisfying these criteria include children, who cannot be deemed to have given consent.' Kilraine also noted that some sections appear to give 'safeguards', ranging from people who would have consented to donate some particular organs but not others, to those who don't want their organs donated but for whatever reason had never opted out. 'It's not a case of, 'Well, I never got around to opting out, so the State are going to take my organs',' White told The Journal. 'The public can rest assured that if a family member hasn't opted out, their relatives will still be the final port of call. It's written very clearly into the legislation: hospitals cannot bypass the family.' Organs and ownership Given the emphasis on the consent of a person's family, is there any weight to the notion that people's organs will become property of the State, as has been claimed online? 'A dead body is not considered property in Ireland; this is to respect and afford dignity to a dead body and which supersedes any concept of ownership,' Kilraine explained. The term 'property' does not appear once in the Human Tissue Act, nor does the term 'ownership'. The term 'owner' does appear three times, but always in relation a building or business, e.g. 'the owner of the hospital'. Instead, dead bodies and organs are legally put under 'authority', a far more limited concept than that of property. 'Next of kin have certain rights and responsibilities with respect to a dead body including with respect to burial and decisions regarding post mortems and organ donation,' Kilraine said. 'This does not amount to ownership.' 'Where a death is sudden, unexplained or in suspicious circumstances, the coroner has legal authority over the body and can order a post-mortem and or retain the body for investigative purposes. 'This authority when in force supersedes any rights of the next of kin or family. It is however as a custodian, and neither the coroner or the State have ownership of a dead body. 'None of the above are changed by the Act. Organs of dead people would not be said to be property of the state or of anyone else.' The gift of life The new Irish legislation follows opt-out systems that have been put in place in other countries, including in every jurisdiction in the United Kingdom. However, since being introduced in England in 2020, it has not had a major impact on the number of organs that have been donated. In large part, this was due to potential donations being overruled by patients' families. Of the 1,036 cases where deemed consent applied, the family did not support donation 446 times, according to statistics from the NHS . In many ways, the conversation encouraged by the Kidney Donor Cards since the '70s is still the key to successfully enabling organ donations. 'When we lose a loved one, there's very much that element of powerlessness,' White told The Journal 'And then there's this opportunity, if you're in that 1-2%, to transform the lives of others.' 'I've witnessed, over the years, donor families coming up to the transplant recipients to say 'thank you', which is mind blowing. The recipients say 'No, hold on there! It's your loved one and your decision that has allowed me to do what I'm doing'. 'But the donor families say: 'No. It brings some degree of meaning to the loss of our loved one.'' 'We have to think of organ donation, not only in terms of the recipients, but equally of the donor family,' White said. 'We've lost a loved one, but there are other families out there who are getting to celebrate another of life's milestones, to see another Christmas, to share another sunrise.' The Human Tissue Act introduces a new framework for organ donation, however the rights of surviving family members remain paramount. 'Empower your family. Have the conversation,' White implored. 'Or, some might put it a different way: take the decision out of your family's hands by letting them know what you want.' Want to be your own fact-checker? Visit our brand-new FactCheck Knowledge Bank for guides and toolkits The Journal's FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network's Code of Principles. You can read it here . For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader's Guide here . You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here . Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... It is vital that we surface facts from noise. Articles like this one brings you clarity, transparency and balance so you can make well-informed decisions. We set up FactCheck in 2016 to proactively expose false or misleading information, but to continue to deliver on this mission we need your support. Over 5,000 readers like you support us. If you can, please consider setting up a monthly payment or making a once-off donation to keep news free to everyone. Learn More Support The Journal
