Should donated organs go to foreigners?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/78437 /Organs-we-donate-go-to-foreigners

If one did not wish this to happen, then a way round this could be a clause on the donor card, stating that the organ or organs should only go to a British NHS patient.

[sara3]

I would rather my bits helped somebody rather than nobody.

in an ideal world I would like them to help a very cute child with pleading eyes.. but a life is a life!

[jake-the-peg]

For any of you who've expressed the wish to help someone live after they've died.

If you've not gotten around to signing up for a card - you can do it on line and the card will be sent to you in the post:

http://www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/how_to_beco me_a_donor/how_to_become_a_donor.jsp

Takes a few minutes

[mrs_overall]

I'm outraged at this story, particularly as I have a sister who is on a transplant waiting list.
We have a UK donation scheme, NOT a European scheme. There are thousands of people in this country waiting for a transplant and many of them will die whilst waiting.
I find it abhorrent that someone from abroad can purchase a UK cadaveric organ. I am NOT racist and I don't care if the donors and recipients in the UK are white, black, brown or skyblue pink with yellow dots on.....as long as they are UK residents.

[The Sherman]

so if you are ever abroad you wuld obviously turn away any organ tat was offered to you if it was needed?

There are thousands of british people that now live abroad -are they to be completely denied because they were not born of that country?

Or should we do the human thing and first of all promote the fact that very few people actually donate organs when they die and then offer them to whoever needs them? I assume you haven't read the above post where Britain was importing blood because it was needed to save many lives?
So I assume you would rather they all died as well?

Shame on you.

[The Sherman]

Thanks Jake have just filled in the form online. I had already filled in a card but just in case they def have my details.

[terambulan]

Eastern europeans with 'bladdered' livers will be glad of our wholesome livers.

Third world Aids will soon empty our blood banks!

You better all die quick & donate to above.....for their prosperity.

[mrs_overall]

The Sherman - I am on the donor register, the NHS donor register. I want my organs to be used for an NHS patient and not sold to the highest bidder from another country.

Give me details of how many Brits abroad have had priority transplants over someone born & bred in a particular country.....and I will gladly donate any one of my organs here and now!

[sp1814]

mrs_overall

Unfortunately, the press has (surprise surprise) misrepresented this story quite badly.

Let's get something straight...foreign patients are not leap-frogging NHS patients.

That is just not happening.

If no suitable match is found on the NHS register transplantees, then the organ is 'offered' within the private sector.

This is how it was explained to me by a mate who's a consultant cardiologist at Guys.

If no suitable transplantee is found within the private sector, I don't know what happens to it...but let's leave this "foreigners are nicking our British livers" story where it belongs.

[mrs_overall]

sp1814 - I hear what you are saying and have noticed the story was in the Daily Express - need I say more?

I get worked up over the subject because I am watching my poor sister going rapidly downhill while she waits for a transplant.

[sp1814]

mrs_overall

Sorry to hear that. Someone earlier on this thread mentioned that there is an actual department within the NHS that has the responsibility for deciding who should get donated organs when more than one match is found.

The situation is so appalling that I really think there needs to be a drive to get more people signed up. Personally, I have a donor card and I'm signed up to the Anthony Nolan bone marrow system (although I'm terrified of actually having to give bone marrow...apparently it's horribly painful).

But with organs...I don't see why more people don't sign up. The way I look at it is that when I go, the doctors can have anything (apart from my liver...by then it will be pretty much ruined).

[anotheoldgit]

stating that the organ or organs should only go to a British NHS patient

Obviously you also find difficulty in reading also Sherman, get someone to read the above out to you or contact Spec Savers.

I persume all those you have listed are British NHS potential patients?

If yes then they would qualify.

[The Sherman]

sorry anotheoldgit to many also's what you talking about in your last post?
Also why not share your opinion on the subject or have you been thoroughly beaten yet again on your anitquated views?

[anotheoldgit]

I wouldn't take too much notice of sp1814's imaginary mate at Guy's.

All this newspaper bashing tends to distort the facts ie. it is only true if it is printed in the Guardian or any other far left propaganda sheet.

Take the way my question has been distorted for example.

At no time did I say that organs should not go to foreigners, (FACT)

I have never said I hate the Scots or anyone else for that matter, criticised certain perks they enjoy yes, but never hated them, (FACT)

I only suggested that having read the article, anyone who did not wish their organs to go to foreigners could perhaps attach a clause to their donor card, (FACT)

At no time did I state where my own organs should go to, (FACT)

I challenge anyone to highlight the numourous accusations levied at me as being the truth.

But then when has speaking the truth ever been a strong point of the left, yet it is them that are constantly accusing certain newspapers of making stories up or even telling damn right lies.

[Ethel]

When has the truth ever got in the way of a good story for the Daily Mail?

[rov1200]

Nobody has mentioned that surgeons will receive an extra, yes extra �20,000 for transplanting a liver into a private foreign patient which he would NOT get if put into an NHS patient? A good incentive to follow this practice isn't it?

[jno]

My will specifies that my heart should not go to a Mail reader as their high blood pressure is likely to be bad for it.

[The Sherman]

So you didnt reffer to the scots as something like 'sweaties'? (whatever that means)

You say that the guardian is a truth bender- yet you never publish posts pointing out how many times they get it wrong! (to my knowledge)

you say that you have not inferred your opinion yet you have voiced your opinion and your stance in so many other psots that i think it is reasonable to assume that:

you have stated many times how you are very pro british and dont like our resources going to foreigners
a donor card stating just for british people is your solution the the 'problem'
can we not infer from that that your own opinion is that you dont want your organs going to foreigners?

maybe if all this is wrong you could have actually posted an opinion in the first place! or is that to challenging?

and then just to round off a nice little attack on the left side of political stances, as if that is the be all and end all. If you're Left you deserve to be slated by the mighty git because everything you could possibly believe in must be wrong

[sp1814]

rov1200

Surgeons do not have the final say in which patients get donated organs. They will put forward cases but it isn't down to them as to who gets the organs.

If surgeons knew that they could score �20K for organ transplants and the recipients were down to them, it'd be a horrible free-for-all.

I'm basing that, not on anything my mate has told me, but from watching House, where a very similar situation arose in series two.

[China Doll]

While I don't doubt the merits of House (who knew Hugh Laurie was a hottie eh?!), Splat does indeed speak the truth, it's not down to the Consultants. There's a team that either includes or is run by (Bednobs would know for sure) Transplant Co-ordinators and there are rather a lot of them based all over England making sure that the organs get to where they need to go.

The lists themselves aren't based on any one thing as far as I'm aware and the constraints on patients are hard and must be stuck to at all costs. Deviation could cost them an organ.

Frankly the whole 'opting in' system of carrying a donor card is a damn joke as far as I'm concerned and we should adopt the 'opt out' system and have a very long and difficult to understand form in order to have the option not to donate, (we're the public sector, we can do unnecessary forms!). Laziness could for once be used as a powerful tool.

[sp1814]

Leaving China's heroically unrestrained libido aside, she makes an interesting point regarding 'opt out'. I assume that certain religious groups would be against it on faith grounds (Jehovah's Witnesses? I could be wrong), but overall, the opt out system would cut waiting lists overnight!