HALIFAX—Nova Scotia is now the first jurisdiction in North America to implement presumed consent around organ donation, a move health officials believe could see a significant rise in the number of donors over the next few years. Legislation passed in April 2019 finally took effect Monday following more than 18 months of work to ensure provincial systems were equipped to handle the change. Under the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act, all people in Nova Scotia will be considered potential organ donors unless they opt out. “To my knowledge nobody else is close to considering this, but many places are thinking about it,” said Dr. Stephen Beed, medical director of Nova Scotia’s organ and tissue donation program. “We have an opportunity to transform a component of the health-care system and that just does not happen very often.” In an interview last week, Beed said the work to bolster the province’s …