Seeking answers may help save lives

Numbers that are not made up can be revealing most of the time.

Yesterday, the government made public a set of figures about organ donations, with a table showing two opposite sets of numbers.

On the one hand, about 5,800 applications were received from December to April to withdraw from the Centralized Organ Donation Register.

Since the register was created in 2009, the number of donors on the register has steadily grown to more than 357,000.

Of the withdrawal applications, around half - 2,905 to be exact - were declared invalid because the people making the requests either were never on the register in the first place or had been making repeated applications to quit the register.

This prompted criticism from the authorities that "a small number of people" had been trying to disrupt the register and vilify organ donation as well as a government plan to set up a standing organ-transplant mutual assistance mechanism with the mainland.

On the other hand, about 5,100 people added their names to the register during the same five-month period, pledging to donate their organs after death.

Fortunately, after half of the invalid applications were deducted from the sum, there has been a net gain in the number of people signing up to donate organs after death.

This is the silver lining that we can immediately draw from the numbers.

That being said, the government has also confessed that the number of valid withdrawals during the period was higher than usual.

Even though it is not immediately known by how many the number has increased, it can still be a cause for concern.

The question is: why did so many people quit?

Some might have been influenced by the "small number of people" accused by the government of trying to vilify the system and the mutual aid plan with the mainland.

But it would be imprudent to blame their influence for all the valid applications.

Should Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau conduct a proper poll to find out why more people have opted to quit than usual? Figures from a properly conducted survey would provide a scientific base for him to improve the policy.

It is clear in the steady growth of the register that the public is generally supportive of organ donation.

However, it is evident in the "higher" number of people quitting the register that, underneath the growth, there is also cause for concern.

Could the concern be related to the mutual aid program that Lo is drawing up with his mainland counterparts? He had better find out since, apart from this new mechanism, there is no new factor locally.

Better still, as Lo works on the new mechanism, he should put it up for public consultation so that he can fully explain the pros and cons of such a Hong Kong-mainland arrangement to the public.

It will not be difficult to come up with many pros to win public support as Lo could readily cite past cases in which organs from the mainland helped save lives in Hong Kong.

With complete transparency and public understanding, the government needs not worry about the influence of "a small number of people."