Quizzes & Puzzles19 mins ago
Organ Donation, Presumed Consent.
132 Answers
As the Government discuss changing the law regarding organ donation, are you for or against presumed consent. I have always carried a donor card and am registered, after my death they can have what ever they want. I can see a great benefit to ethnic minorities who are woefully under represented on the register. Can the health service afford all the extra transplants that will now be possible. A few points there, very interested in AB'ers views.
Answers
At last - it's been far too long in coming. I hope that the "we still need to ask the relatives" issue gets booted into touch too. All it needs now is the final tweak that says "If you opt out, then you go to the back of the queue if you subsequently need a transplant"
16:31 Tue 12th Dec 2017
I think (as anne asquith said), you're trying to make the "requirement to make a decision" more onerous than is necessary.
It's a simple decision to opt-out (and it will actually come without any of the consequences I would like to see).
If someone choses to duck that decision (or is simply too incompetent/immortal) then the family should be blaming them - not the doctors or the government.
I assume that the opt-out will apply from age 18 and the family will have their current power to agree/refuse until then.
It's a simple decision to opt-out (and it will actually come without any of the consequences I would like to see).
If someone choses to duck that decision (or is simply too incompetent/immortal) then the family should be blaming them - not the doctors or the government.
I assume that the opt-out will apply from age 18 and the family will have their current power to agree/refuse until then.
I agree Dave it is the lax person's fault, no doubt about that, but it still won't be an uncommon occurrence and it will still lead to the harvesting of people's organs when their families are in violent opposition and all of the added grief and distress that will go with that. Also it requires people to notify the State of their wishes instead of it being a private family decision as it is at present, and inches us closer to further state control in our lives and deaths.
For anyone sufficiently interested this is what Organ Donation Wales has to say on the subject- essentially if the family cannot show that the dead person expressed a wish themselves not to donate then the pandemonium we suggested earlier will go ahead. It is not enough for the family to not wish for donation to go ahead. Wonderful. Deemed consent is of course nothing of the sort it's simply a lack of information one way or the other.
//Families have a very important part to play in any discussion about organ donation.
The UK has amongst the highest number of family refusals to donation in Europe. This is because when a family does not know their loved one's decision they tend to say no to organ donation.
Under deemed consent family involvement continues to be essential. Families of donors are asked about some elements of the deceased's medical/lifestyle history, residency information and possibly confirm that the deceased had mental capacity to understand organ donation.
The deceased family and close friends can also inform medical staff if the deceased objected to organ donation but had not registered an opt out decision. If this happens then donation will not go ahead. However this objection would have to be based on the views of the deceased.//
//Families have a very important part to play in any discussion about organ donation.
The UK has amongst the highest number of family refusals to donation in Europe. This is because when a family does not know their loved one's decision they tend to say no to organ donation.
Under deemed consent family involvement continues to be essential. Families of donors are asked about some elements of the deceased's medical/lifestyle history, residency information and possibly confirm that the deceased had mental capacity to understand organ donation.
The deceased family and close friends can also inform medical staff if the deceased objected to organ donation but had not registered an opt out decision. If this happens then donation will not go ahead. However this objection would have to be based on the views of the deceased.//