IIRC France has an opt-out policy. i.e. it is assumed that all organs are available for transplant unless you have specifically expressed an objection. From what I understand from a friend who worked in a renal care unit, kidney patients in France have a far far greater chance of a timely transplant than in the UK.
The current newsworthy situation in the UK is not about organs for transplant, which requires explicit permission from next of kin, but for ‘research’ purposes.
If it were open and honest I would support the introduction of a system along the same lines as the French.
I don’t have a cite handy…but I recall that states without motorcycle helmet laws tend to produce more suitable donors…Typical fatalities are often otherwise healthy individuals…with healthy organs …
For those interested in the topic of organ donation (including the science and public policy aspects)
I suggest the book Many Sleepless Nights
North America is acting (IMO)in an overly-cautious, hesitant way regarding organ donation. We’re in a society that does transplants of other people’s organs on a regular basis - it is a well-established medical treatment that is required by far more people than can be helped. I think we’re at the point where it’s time to make some decisions and commitments to move ahead with organ donations and stop skirting around the issue.
This is sort of true, but even elderly people can contribute important tissues. Skin goes to the skin bank to help people who have large burns. Bone goes to the bone bank, corneas to the eye bank, etc.
People who die of infectious diseases are normally excluded from donating. However, even people with certain diseases can donate.
For example, many donors have hepatitis (you wouldn’t believe how many people have hepatitis and don’t know it- it’s pretty scary) and so you’d think their organs would be useless. The organ shortage is so severe, though, that confronted with a certain and immediate death, people will opt to receive a hepatitis-infected organ instead in the hope that it will buy them just a little time.
The best option is to assume everyone’s a donor but give everyone the option of refusing to donate for any or no reason. People should never be forced to be donors.
Redboss:
I’m only ageist in that I would give them to the people who would get the most good out of them. A 20-year-old would get a damn sight more use out of them than would a 50-year-old. Of course, that comes with qualifications. A 20-year-old gang member shot in the heart by a psycho would get much less out of an organ than would a 50-year-old CEO who used to booze it up.
DoctorJ:
It’s good to know such rules exist. But medical history might not be a deciding factor if I could choose. An abusive parent would not get my organs. A convicted felon would not get my organs, either. That might sound cruel. That might sound cold. That might sound like I wouldn’t even have a heart to donate. The fact remains, though: Nobody has a right to my body or the contents thereof. If I choose to render my body unusable by self-immolation that is my business. What would happen to that right if the government decided it could take organs from any corpse that turned up?
Not to be obnoxious, but a lot of people (IRL as well as on the Boards) feel quite strongly against measures to make more organs available, but I get the feeling that most of the people taking this position would be more than happy to take a donated organ if they needed it. I’m having a hard time understanding this attitude; where do people think the organs they need are coming from, if nobody wants to donate their own upon dying? Is it just the idea of having donation assumed upon death that people have a problem with?
I love the way you play with words. “…a lot of people (IRL as well as on the Boards) feel quite strongly against measures to make more organs available…” What we’ve been specifically discussing here is making everyone mandatory organ donors. Nobody here came out against any other possible measures to increase the number of organ donation. Nor did anyone here come out against organ transplants in general. Perhaps a campaign of awareness through education would encourage more people to donate?
I would take an organ if I needed it to save my life. I have nothing against organ donation and I’ve told my family that I’m happy to donate. But the choice was mine and doesn’t belong to you, some guy at the state capital, or some person in Washington D.C.
This is a great idea we should implement across the board.
I can imagine answering my door to see a pizza delivery guy wielding a large sausage and pepperoni pie and an order of crazy bread.
“But, I didn’t order any of this.” I protest.
“Yes,” replies the delivery boy. “But you simply didn’t declare otherwise!”
How about we just assume that I don’t want anything done with my organs when I die? What about all the people who don’t know that they’re an “automatic” donor? Right, who cares about their personal, spiritual or religious beliefs? As long as Mantle gets that liver he’s been aching for. The Man’s an American hero.
How about people right now who want to be donors, have signed the backs of their driver’s licenses, and naively assume that this makes them donors because they don’t know that every family member must specifically agree to donate and if one cousin or great-aunt is a little grossed out by the idea and refuses to consent the organs will go to the grave and rot rather than be used as the attempted donors wished?
Something will happen to your organs when you die. Either they’ll be used to save others, or they’ll rot. I believe the disposal of your body should always be your personal choice.
Anyone who has a personal, spiritual, or religious aversion to donation should be free to refuse. It wouldn’t take much to educate people on the subject and to make a simple, “no, I don’t want to donate my organs” card readily available. In addition, I’m sure that if someone who had religious or other reasons to refuse donation but hadn’t signed a card saying so, it would be pretty easy for a family member to speak up and let your beliefs be known.
It takes one family member to sign a consent form for organ donation and that’s only in certain states. Do you have a cite for a case were this has actually happened?
And if there was no family member? It’s hard to debate any “personal liberty” versus “saving lives” argument without sounding callous, but if a person wants to donate his or her organs, he or she can go take the necessary steps to ensure it happens. A person who doesn’t want to, shouldn’t have to be made to take special measures. You’re free to disagree.
I don’t have a cite, just personal experience. I’ve dealt several times with people who had signed donor cards and even expressed aloud to family members that they’d like to donate. Then when they were declared brain dead, the family (sometimes just one family member) refused, so donation was out of the question. I live in Texas, if that helps.
I realize that we are debating mandatory organ donation; I was also assuming that the mandatory donation we’re talking about included an opt-out clause, and this is the type of measures I was talking about. For some people, the opt-out clause doesn’t seem to be enough for them to support the proposed mandatory donation. The point I was trying to make was that things are not working well as they are, as evidenced by the long waiting lists for transplants, and while people were rejecting the mandatory donation idea (which included the opt-out clause), I didn’t see a lot of other suggestions to make the donation plans work better. Your idea of public awareness campaigns is a good one; maybe health officials need to look at the root of the problem, and address the reasons why more people don’t feel comfortable declaring themselves organ donors.
I realize that we are debating mandatory organ donation; I was also assuming that the mandatory donation we’re talking about included an opt-out clause, and this is the type of measures I was talking about. For some people, the opt-out clause doesn’t seem to be enough for them to support the proposed mandatory donation.
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You’re right, an opt out clause isn’t enough for me. If I choose to donate then Iwill take the necessary steps to ensure that it happens. Mandatory donation just isn’t something I think the government needs to make a law about.
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Well that’s because this topic is focused on mandatory donation not on other programs. And actually I fail to see what’s wrong with organ transplants the way they are. If a person suddenly dies who’s to say any of their vital organs will be donated to anyone? My father had an unexpected heart attack but because they had to perform an autopsy they couldn’t get rid of his organs. At best they got to use some skin and his corneas.
A lot of people just don’t want to think about their own death. Some people might not trust the medical community to be tempted to work a little less on someone who has some spare parts they need.
My brother is waiting for a kidney/liver transplant. His disease is entirely genetic, and has nothing to do with behavioral choices or anything else he can control. The doctors estimate a liver will probably come available eight months to a year after he dies. That seems pretty wrong right there.
Some people put tinfoil on the windows to keep out the alien mind-control rays. What’s your point?
