DEPUTY First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has praised the Evening Times for its "powerful" Opt For Life campaign.

Ms Sturgeon, who is also Scottish Health Secretary, paid tribute to our campaign calling for the introduction in Scotland of a system of presumed consent for organ donation.

She said the campaign had attracted support from politicians and leading figures across the country.

And she said the Scottish Government was keeping a close eye on the Welsh Assembly, which is considering introducing legislation to switch to an opt-out policy by 2015.

Ms Sturgeon said the Government had not ruled out moving to an opt-out policy if sufficient progress was not made. She said the Government had to do "everything it could" to help clinicians save more lives.

A public debate on the issue might also be on the cards in the next year or two, she added.

Ms Sturgeon was addressing an event at the Scottish Parliament to discuss the future of organ donation policy.

It was organised by the British Medical Association, which is strongly in favour of an opt-out policy with safeguards and wants a public debate on the issue.

The city MSP said: "The debate is continuing in Glasgow.

"The Evening Times, in my own patch, is running a very powerful campaign that has attracted the support of politicians and leading figures. I would pay tribute to them for it.

"Anything that raises awareness about organ donation has to be a good thing.

"I am sympathetic (to opt-out) and always have been all of my adult life.

"However, we have to be careful about how we would progress in the debate.

"We should not see opt-out as a panacea. We have to make sure we have the infrastructure in place and that is what we are focused on.

"I do not rule out opt-out, but we have to make sure we are doing all the hard miles before we decide if that's the best way forward."

She said progress had been made to improve donation rates, with 38% of people in Scotland now on the register, but she wanted to see the figure go much higher than that.

"As long as one patient is dying waiting we have work to do," she added.

Veronica English, head of ethics for the British Medical Association, said: "The countries that have an opt-out system tend to have higher donation rates.

"What we need to do now is to start having that debate."

caroline.wilson@ eveningtimes.co.uk