Barbados could soon open the door to deceased organ donation for the first time, under new legislation introduced in Parliament on Wednesday that health advocates said would ease pressure on overstretched dialysis services and expand life-saving transplant options for as many as 30 000 people at risk of kidney failure.

The Human Tissue Transplant Bill, presented in the Senate on Wednesday, would legalise deceased organ donation through a regulated framework for the removal and transplantation of human tissue.

Currently, Barbados is only able to perform living donor kidney transplants.