Steven Fletcher

Public record

Organ donation and presumed consent: The Gift of Life Act

Issues & Impact

Three times between 2017 and 2018, Steven Fletcher introduced The Gift of Life Act, which would have made every Manitoban a presumed organ donor unless they opted out. None of the bills passed. Nova Scotia adopted the same model in 2021, the first jurisdiction in North America to do so.

The position

Manitoba, like most of Canada, used an express-consent system: you are an organ donor only if you have signed up. Fletcher’s argument was that most people support donation but never register, and that the legal default should match the sentiment. Under presumed consent, sometimes called opt-out, everyone is treated as a willing donor unless they record an objection. His stated purpose was as much to create awareness as to change the law.1

The purpose of introducing this act is to create awareness about organ donation. This bill suggests that everyone is assumed to be a donor unless they say no.

Steven Fletcher, Manitoba Legislative Assembly, 31 October 20171

The bills

He introduced The Gift of Life Act three times, amending the Human Tissue Gift Act to flip the default from opt-in to opt-out: Bill 213 in the 2017 session, Bill 209 later that year, and Bill 212 in 2018.2 None of the three proceeded past second reading.2

The debate

When the bill was first debated, on 31 October 2017, no government member spoke to it.1 The NDP’s Andrew Swan offered cautious support for sending it to committee but raised a real objection: an opt-out system can disadvantage people less able to register a choice, those without internet access or facing a language barrier, who might remain presumed donors without ever having engaged the question. The motion was defeated on a voice vote, with a recorded division deferred.1

What happened elsewhere

The idea did not end with the bills. In January 2021 Nova Scotia became the first jurisdiction in North America to adopt presumed consent3, and in 2022 the Manitoba Law Reform Commission examined the question in a full report.4 Fletcher was early to a debate that has since moved into the mainstream, though it has not yet reached Manitoba’s statute book.

Contribution, classified
Authorship The Gift of Life Act, introduced three times (Bills 213, 209 and 212, 2017-2018), to move Manitoba to presumed-consent organ donation.
Advocacy Argued that the legal default should match the public’s general willingness to donate, and used the bill to raise awareness.
Influence The bill drew debate but no government support; its influence is as an early marker in a debate later taken up elsewhere.
Result None of the bills passed second reading. Manitoba did not adopt presumed consent.
Legacy Nova Scotia adopted the model in 2021 and the Manitoba Law Reform Commission examined it in 2022; the question he raised remains live.

Sources

  1. Manitoba Legislative Assembly, Hansard, 31 October 2017 (second-reading debate; recorded division deferred to 2 November 2017).
  2. Manitoba, Bill 213, The Gift of Life Act (Human Tissue Gift Act amended), 41st Legislature, 2nd session, 2017; reintroduced as Bill 209 (3rd session, 2017) and Bill 212 (4th session, 2018).
  3. Nova Scotia presumed-consent organ-donation legislation, in effect January 2021.
  4. Manitoba Law Reform Commission, Presumed Consent Organ and Tissue Donation, final report, February 2022.

These citations are as complete as the record now allows. More will be added as they are found, and these pages change as the facts do. Where a source is a recollection rather than a document, it is identified as such.