Gordon Brown has refused to rule out a change in the law that may see everyone considered as a potential organ donor, despite the recommendations of his advisers yesterday.

The opt-out system of organ donation should not be introduced as it could undermine patients’ confidence in medical care, the UK Organ Donation Taskforce said.

The system of “presumed consent”, as used in Spain and other countries, was unlikely to boost donation rates, as The Times revealed on Friday.

A £4.5 million public awareness campaign in England will start next year with the aim of boosting the number of people on the voluntary organ donation register.

But the Government said that if measures to improve the current system did not work within five years, a law change in the law may follow.

However, Mr Brown is understood to favour a system of “soft” presumed consent, where relatives would be able to object and stop organs being harvested if they found the idea too painful.

He said yesterday that if the campaign failed to have the necessary impact, the laws on consent may change. “I’m not ruling out a further change in the law. We will revisit this when we find out how successful the next stage of the campaign has been,” he said.

There are currently around 8,000 people in the UK who need an organ transplant but only 3,000 operations are carried out each year. About 1,000 people a year die while waiting for a transplant.

But the taskforce said that while the public and the major religious groups in the UK supported the principle of organ donation, there were myths and confusion surrounding how it worked in practice.

Adopting a law where most people could be automatically considered to be donors would undermine the idea of donation as a personal choice and make people worry about doctors’ intentions in caring for their loved ones, it said.

The issue has divided doctors and patients groups, but faith leaders told the committee that changing consent laws may cause a backlash among the public and even decrease rates of available organs.

Elizabeth Buggins, chair of the taskforce, said that the issue raised “really strong emotions”, and that the group’s decision had been delicately balanced.

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