Gordon Brown has called for a change in the UK's organ donation system so that organs can be removed automatically after people die. He signalled that he favours changing the system of organ donation so that organs can be removed after death unless the deceased have previously expressly stated they do not want it.
More than 8,000 Brits are currently waiting and hoping for an organ transplant. More than 1,000 people die each year before a suitable donor is found.
I know that it is wrong of me, and i really should support a scheme that helps keep others alive, but i don't carry a donor card because i have always had this strange and probably illogical fear.
I picture a scene where i am in hospital and the doctors or surgeons would not do all they could to save my life because they want to use one of my internal organs to use in a transplant for someone else. Wrong and an insult to doctors everywhere but it has always prevented me from carrying a donor card.
This was not eased when news broke last year that some doctors at Alder
Hey Hospital in Liverpool and the Bristol Royal Infirmary were removing organs from children and others without the consent of the dead or their relatives and kept for research and other purposes for years.
There is no real argument i can make against the organs of a dead person being made available to save or improve the lives of the living, it is commendable.
The opt-in scheme is obviously not working here but for the Government to 'presume consent' and assume ownership of my body after death, taking what it wants, makes me feel uncomfortable.
That said, this would save the lives of so many others, so...
8 comments:
welp, that's exactly the same reason I don't!
I'm listed as an organ doner here in the states, and it's also on my drivers license. I believe whole heartedly that it's a good and noble thing to do. That being said, Mr. Browns program smacks of the worst in government intervention, and trampling the right of the individual. My God, if I die, the government gets my kidneys, ridiculous. I hope that the citizens of the U.K stand up and say, "This is MY body Mr. Brown, and I will do with it what I want, not you". This is one hell of a Death Tax.
Yah, it makes me uncomfy too. I also have the science fiction scenario in mind -- doctors hovering, waiting for organs. Is she dead yet? Eh, close enough.
"I hope that the citizens of the U.K stand up and say, "This is MY body Mr. Brown, and I will do with it what I want, not you"."
And that's exactly what you say to him when you opt out. There's no compulsion here.
And as regards that 'nightmare scenario' you mention, Lucy... If there were more organs available for possible transplant operations, then there would be no incentive for doctors to 'pull the plug' a bit early! ;)
More seriously, I don't that's a realistic situation. In fact, to me, it sounds a bit like the scare tactics used to try and persuade people of what would happen if euthenasia was legalised.
There has bewen talk about this here Lucy.
IMO the govt has no right to presume consent - they have so much ownership of your body when you are alive, why should they have it when you are dead as well.
I really don't care what they do with my body once I'm dead. If it can be of use to someone else, perhaps save their life, then why not?
Cheers.
There has not been as much support for it as i expected there to be, mainly over the Government pressing the 'presuming consent' on us rather than the actual giving the organs after death.
I know what you're saying - however the government presumes consent in a great many other aspects of society. For instance, all laws. Your adherence to the 'law of the land' is presumed from birth to death. You never give your explicit consent. Indeed you can passionately disagree with certain laws. From memory, I think it was John Locke's 'Two Treatises of Government' was the first major work to express this situation, and convincingly make the case that society could not operate without presuming consent in this regard.
The difference here however, is that you can opt out. Simple.
And if you don't opt out, yet still have a problem - for any reason - with them taking your organs after you die, then surely this is your own fault? Life finds many ways of punishing us for our lack of knowledge/ ability/ activity. This would just be another.
Still, you can always console yourself in the afterlife with the thought that your being remiss helped to save a life!
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