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Coroners and Justice Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord. I am satisfied with the bulk of his reply because it states the situation as it is at the moment. It is completely right that the coroner must be asked for permission if organs are to be harvested from a donor in whom the coroner has an interest of any sort. That is the situation at the moment. The death certificate that I wanted to introduce is quite simply and solely to give the family a piece of paper at the time of the death stating that the person is dead, and giving the time of death and the names of the two people who were responsible for the brain-stem death testing. At the moment, the family does not have that. It does not have the names of both people who were responsible for the testing. They may be different from the people who ultimately sign the death certificate. It was to get that clarity for the family that I sought this. This is a discussion that we will probably pursue outside Committee. There may be merit in the Department of Health producing guidance on producing a short form of documentation that is copied into the clinical record and could be given to the family. It would not have the legal status of a death certificate but would still tell the family the time and the names of those who did the testing; and confirm that it was full brain-stem death testing, because it is so difficult for families to come to terms with brain-stem death.