Organ Donation, Presumed Consent.

[sapelesam]

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.

[sunny-dave]

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"

[Cloverjo]

Good point, sapelsam. But if we can get people back to health and not needing dialysis, therapy and everything else that goes with having unhealthy organs, then it must be worth it.

I've always carried a card, and they can have whatever bits of me that might be worth using.

[Cloverjo]

Yes, it bothers me when people plead for transfers for their ill baby for example, but aren't on the register themselves. I can't give names or dates to support this, but I do remember this coming up during some child's plight.

[gness]

Very much for it, Sam......I've seen the difference a transplant can make in two people close to me.....
As for the cost.......I do know how much it costs to keep a patient on dialysis or plasma exchange when they have no kidneys......a transplant, though needing regular appointments, will be a great saving........and bliss for the patient and family..........
I have also seen patients waiting for a transplant who would never donate and neither will their families.......my opinion on that is a bit too cruel and rude for here..... :-)

[BAKERS DOZEN]

We are both on the donation register but our son does not agree with it and we don't know why. We have told him that if anything happens to him and we are asked to donate his organs then we will. They will be of no use to him.

[Baldric]

I support Donation, I carry a Card but I object to 'Presumed Consent'
just another Big Brother knows best type move imo.

[anthro-nerd]

I think this is brilliant, heard it on the news this morning. Very good idea.

[hc4361]

I, too, am on the Donation Register and carry a card but am very against presumed consent.

[pixie374]

Same as baldric and hc. I am very much for donation myself, but people need to be informed about it. It does affect the drugs you can have while you are dying and your own dying process. It isn't just whipping no-longer needed organs out of a dead body.

[gness]

If you are against it opting out is very simple.......and will encourage families to discuss and make decisions at a time that isn't fraught.

That seems so much kinder to me....x

[Old_Geezer]

I'm not keen. But I'm ok with it if running in parallel there is also presumed consent for folk's estates to be left to me. They're going to be dead so no longer own nor manage it, and I think it will improve my own life because so many folk presently forget to put me in their will or carry the OG estate donor card.

[pixie374]

True- but consent always has to be "informed". How do they know everybody is? In practice, I agree with it. In principle, I don't.

[pixie374]

Do you mean donation or "presumed consent" og?

[Baldric]

I would not opt out as I am already in, it's just the principle I object to.

[Old_Geezer]

Presumed consent to donate the estate to me.

[pixie374]

Good luck with that one :-)

[corylus]

I've been on the Donation Register for years, have a donor card, informed next of kin, if my bits and pieces can help somebody it certainly won't affect me will it? (Always assuming that I am really dead!)

[sunny-dave]

I accept that (a few) people would not accept a transplant - the opt-ou allows them to make this clear.

For everyone else it's terribly simple :

"If I would accept a transplant if I need one, then I must be presumed to be willing to donate my organs after my death"

Anything else is rank hypocrisy.

[sapelesam]

Wow, some of the fastest responses I've had on AB. Very interesting, that so far most are for presumed consent.