George Marcello, an organ donation advocate who has received transplant surgery and is waiting again for a donor,\u00a0is urging Doug Ford\u2019s government to support an NDP bill proposing an opt-out system for organ donation. Marcello, NDP Health critic France G\u00e9linas and recent transplant recipient Gary Marin were at Queen\u2019s Park on Wednesday to fight for the bill.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, G\u00e9linas tabled the Peter Kormos Memorial Act (Trillium Gift of Life Network Amendment). If passed, it would change Ontario\u2019s system to be an opt-out system, rather than an opt-in system.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to watch people suffer for months on end waiting for a donor \u2014 especially when there are willing donors whose desire to donate went unknown,\u201d said G\u00e9linas. \u201cBy moving to an opt-out system, we can continue to respect people\u2019s wishes, while increasing the chances that those on the waitlist will find their match.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Marcello received a liver transplant in August, 1995. After that, he founded the charitable organization, Step by Step, which promotes organ and tissue donations.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOver the past 25 years, I have advocated to improve organ and tissue donations through education and policy,\u201d said Marcello. \u201cMy main focus has been to have Ontario adopt the opt-out system.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI commend France G\u00e9linas for her bill. I\u00a0am calling on Doug Ford\u2019s government to follow the UK\u2019s lead in adopting a soft opt-out system for organ donation and pass this important legislation, because lives like mine are literally at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Nickel Belt resident Gary Marin received a double lung transplant at Toronto General Hospital in April.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis lung transplant has given me a new lease on life,\u201d said Marin. \u201cMy life has improved drastically, and I can\u2019t say enough about the importance of organ donations.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAny action that makes more organ donations available for sick Ontarians is admirable. That\u2019s why I\u2019m supporting France G\u00e9linas\u2019 private member\u2019s bill to establish an opt-out system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
George Marcello, an organ donation advocate who has received transplant surgery and is waiting again for a donor,\u00a0is urging Doug Ford\u2019s government to support an NDP bill proposing an opt-out system for organ donation. Marcello, NDP Health critic France G\u00e9linas and recent transplant recipient Gary Marin were at Queen\u2019s Park on Wednesday to fight for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-provincial"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 21:03:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22903,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22902\/revisions\/22903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}