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Bill C-223, sponsored by Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif, called for the establishment of a “Canadian Organ Donor Registry,” which would link together the patchwork of organ donation systems currently operating across Canada. It also called for the development of a national strategy to promote organ donation, including annual reports to chronicle the effectiveness of that strategy.

Aboultaif’s motivation is twofold: his son, Tyler, suffers from a rare genetic disorder and has already undergone three liver transplants. “Having experienced the organ donation system first-hand,” Aboultaif told the House in April, “I became acutely aware of the need for a more co-ordinated effort in this area, both locally and nationally.”

His other motivation is Canada’s enduringly broken system, which has one of the worst organ donation rates in the developed world. According to a 2014 report by the International Registry in Organ Donation and Transplantation, Canada had approximately 16.5 deceased donors per million population, trailing way behind world-leader Spain at nearly 36, the U.S. at 27, France at 25 and the U.K. 20. And although trends do show that organ donation rates are up in Canada, the demand for organs also continues to outpace supply, and will only get worse as the Baby Boomer generation ages.

Despite that, it’s not particularly surprising Aboultaif’s bill didn’t make it through second reading; these sorts of private member’s bills tend not to generate all that much attention (unless they’re about abortion, or giving caucus the power to trigger a leadership review, or the national anthem), meaning it wasn’t all that politically risky for the Liberals to shoot it down, even though experts in the field have been calling for some sort of national legislation on organ donation for years.