Turia Tariana: Human Tissue (Organ Donation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Turia Tariana: Human Tissue (Organ Donation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 It is not unusual for us to receive calls regarding the deaths of family members. Two days ago I got a call that a whanaunga of mine not in her 60s yet with a history of diabetes had passed away. Our people are overrepresented in cases of diabetic renal failure with rates up to 10 times those of non-Maori. One of the greatest tragedies of our time is that the rate of organ donation to prolong the lives of so many of our whanaunga is low. A statistical analysis by the National Transplant Donor Coordination Office showed that only six Maori families consented to organ donation between 1988 and 1996 from a total of 290 families. Given the prevalence of kidney disease in our population and potential issues around tissue matching this low rate of organ donation seriously affects Maori people. 
 We are very aware that the current demand for tissue-compatible Maori organs exceeds current supply. This is a huge issue for our communities and it is a dialogue that the Maori Party very much wants to continue amongst our people. We welcome and will seek further opportunity for meaningful debate around how health and other professionals deal with the removal retention and return of body parts and with organ donation. We mihi to Jackie Blue for her courage and to that member and to Andy Tookey for their initiative in trying to address the donor shortage problem in New Zealand. 
But the bill being discussed here today goes far further than many of our people are willing to consider. Many Maori are very uncomfortable with the concept of organ donation following death—the tupapaku is tapu and to interfere with it in any way is abhorrent to our culture. Human tissue organ donation is a massive issue for us and it raises huge questions about issues of protection informed consent tangata whenua control of information and medical processes access to information and medical care and most of all cultural respect. 
The issue of the removal of body parts without seeking informed consent has a heavy history for Maori. Controversy arose in 1991 regarding the removal of organs from Maori bodies either to determine the cause of death or for research or transplant purposes. Some cases dated back to 1963. In many cases the removals were not necessary to determine the cause of death as indeed I spoke about last night in reference to the Coroners Bill. The practice broke tapu and breached Maori cultural protocols and many whanau were traumatised suffering unacceptable delays before the tupapaku were returned. 
I raise another way of looking at this issue. It is one that the Maori Party has been talking about in our communities given that people spoke so strongly against the bill when we presented it to them. We raised the issue of live transplants between whanau members. That actually seemed to catch on with our people. They were quite accepting of the idea that it is really important that we take responsibility within our whanau to ensure the wellness of our whanau and that we give life back to our own. Despite the fact we are not voting with Jackie tonight I thank her because it is probably not an issue we would have otherwise discussed. I thank her for raising this legislation and in a way for creating the opportunity for us to take the issue back to our people. 
Ethnicity is said to be an important aspect in respect of tissue matching but I tell members of a recent situation when a whanau were looking for a live donor amongst themselves. In fact the only match was the Pakeha sister-in-law. The transplant took place but it was not one of the whakapapa family who gave the donation. There are some very important stories for us to learn from. 
In taking this issue to the people we learned of the desire of our people to know more about their legal rights and requirements in relation to organ donation and post-mortems. We heard many concerns that our people have about the process and the aspiration of wider whanau members such as kaumatua and kuia to benefit from the information. We as a political party wanted to send this bill to a select committee but ultimately our commitment to our constituency means everything and we must be true to them. Over and over again the bill was rejected outright. Na reira ka nui te mihi ki a koutou tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa.