THE mother of a teenager waiting for a kidney transplant today called for a national poll on whether organ donation laws should be changed.

Karen Coupe, whose daughter Sarah, 14, has been on the waiting list for four years, said she was devastated that MPs had voted against a proposal for presumed consent last night.

The bid was opposed by the Government, sparking protests from several Labour backbenchers, including Burnley MP Peter Pike, who broke a Labour whip to back the move.

The change, already in place in Ireland, would have made donation automatic where someone had not registered their objections.

Karen, 43, of Sefton Farm, in Clayton-le-Moors, said: "People's lives are at stake here. I think they should do a national survey, perhaps along with the census, where people tick a box to give their view."

Under the current system, people opt in if they want their organs donated to others after death.

A cross-party move to reverse this and force people to opt out instead was defeated by 307 votes to 60.

Sarah was born with a hole in her heart and just one kidney.

She has been on the waiting list for a new kidney for four years and has 10 hours of dialysis over six nights a week.

But she is becoming increasingly ill and now has anaemia and bone disease which has led to rickets.

Karen added: "If presumed consent is brought in, people who are against it can fill in a form to say so, it would not be forced on people.

"As it is something like 85 per cent of people say they are happy for others to have their organs.

"To ask a relative about organ donation at the necessary time must be devastating and people often say no because it is a terrible time to ask.

"Often they later say they wish they had given consent but by then it is too late."

Health Secretary John Reid said: "This decision over one's own body is for the conscience of individual citizens in this country. It is not for this Parliament to impose upon them a requisition of their bodies after death for the state."