By Judith Duffy

A MAJOR campaign to encourage more Scots to sign up to the organ donor register will begin this week, involving television advertising for the first time.

The Scottish government initiative will run an "emotive" TV advert every day during March, supported by a series of outdoor posters, in a bid to raise the profile of organ donation.

The campaign will be launched on Wednesday to coincide with a debate in the Scottish parliament on a report from the UK taskforce on organ donation.

Published last month, it made a series of recommendations, including creating a UK-wide network of organ retrieval teams and more training in the NHS to ensure that donation is seen as a usual - rather than unusual - event.

It is hoped these measures could increase the number of donors by 50% over the next five years, which would result in an additional 120 transplants being carried out every year in Scotland.

Last week it was revealed the first live liver transplant in Scotland had taken place, with 28-year-old Daniel Foster receiving half of his wife's healthy liver. The operation, which was carried out at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, is one of a handful of similar procedures to have taken place in the UK.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said this procedure was a reflection of the steps people are having to take to compensate for the lack of organs donated after death.

"The shortage of donor organs for transplantation is an increasingly acute problem and we are determined to tackle this," she added.

The organ donation taskforce has also been asked separately to examine the issue of whether the system in the UK should be changed to one of "presumed consent" - where people would have to opt out of, rather than opt in to, the organ donor register - with the interim report due to be published this summer. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is among those who have signalled their support for such a move.