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The Federal Government is stepping up attempts to boost the organ register after figures revealed just 30 per cent of donors sign up before they die.
Human Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said there was an urgent need for donors to save their loved ones the "extremely difficult" decision.
She made her appeal after doctors widened the criteria for potential donors, meaning patients could be given the healthy organs of smokers, heavy drinkers and the elderly.
Ms Plibersek vented concern that only 74 of 247 people who donated their organs last year were on the Australia New Zealand Organ Donor Registry.
"Doctors will always seek permission from family before removing organs from a deceased person in order to save the life of someone waiting for a transplant," Ms Plibersek told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
"But the decision to donate, which is often made at an extremely difficult time, is far easier for the family if people indicate their intention to be a donor by talking to their loved ones and signing onto the register."
Australia still lags behind many countries in donor registrations, leading doctors to extend the criteria for acceptable donors.
Professor Jeremy Chapman, of the worldwide Transplantation Society and director of Westmead Hospital's renal unit, told the Sunday Telegraph that while not ideal, heavy smokers, drinkers and even cancer patients could still be organ donors.
"We extended the criteria in July so we now evaluate organs from a wider criteria to have more potential donors," he told the paper.
"We are looking at older donors, looking at donors who have had a previous infection with hepatitis C and looking at donors that we might not previously have considered."
There is no requirement for donors to have given prior consent before they die.
Across the country, the report showed that South Australia donated the most organs per capita out of all states and territories.
"According to the report, the median age of an organ donor was 48 years and the most common cause of death was heart failure, at 48 per cent, while road trauma accounted for 13 per cent of donor deaths," Ms Plibersek added.
Around 1,700 people remain on official transplant waiting lists at any one time, she added.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/8191185/donors-failing-to-register-before-death
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