Organ donation should be automatic

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Rosalinda

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Forget the forms, assume that everyone wants to donate their organs automatically should they die suddenly. This was the argument presented today in a leading Canadian national newspaper, the Globe and Mail. Spain, France, Italy and Sweden were cited as countries which have already taken this route to increase the number of available organs for transplantation. The author, Andre Picard, claims this is the just and ethical approach in order to save the lives of those who die needlessly waiting for a heart, lung, liver or kidney transplant.

What do you think? Would such legislation be ethical if citizens have not specifically said no in advance? After all, they have the freedom to say no before they have a heart attack or become brain-dead.

Sorry, I could not find the link for this on the Internet after reading it in the newspaper. It might eventually be posted in the health section.

contact Andre at: apicard@globeandmail.ca
 
That’s a difficult call. It certainly would save thousands (actually probably millions) of lives. But I’m really not sure about the ethics involved. If there was a large public campaign to encourage people to make that decision ahead of time, and if they knew that otherwise it would be assumed they agreed with organ donation - it may be morally ok.

Alot of times in middle of the emotional trauma a family can not make such a decision. I think that’s the core problem with the lack of donations. People don’t make their desires known and for a greiving family it’s just to hard to make a such a decision.
 
The problem is not so much consent to organ donation as the definition of death.

The Church says organ donation is OK after you’re dead.

Who defines death?

Dead organs are of no use to anybody.
 
Another question is, who has legal stewardship over human remains? If a person is decapitated, such as a woman in a car accident for which I sat on a jury, there is no question she is dead, so who has the say so over her arrangements?

I know when my father died, it was all up to my mother, and they contacted her directly and accepted her word.

Alan

[edit]Making your intentions known doesn’t always mean they will be respected, either. Especially if you are rich or famous. Have they burned JPII’s documents yet? I’ve also read that a dead person has no right to privacy, but I don’t know in what areas that is the case.
 
Please find a link for this, this could be very abused:eek:
 
I don’t understand why a person would not want their organs donated, unless they have religious objections, but I’m not sure it should be automatic either. If I were dead, I wouldn’t care if they took my organs, but I would have a problem if they just took my son’s without my permission.
 
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JimG:
The problem is not so much consent to organ donation as the definition of death.

The Church says organ donation is OK after you’re dead.

Who defines death?

Dead organs are of no use to anybody.
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Call me “paranoid”, but that’s my feeling. My wife knows I am willing to be an organ donor, but I want them to track her down and ask her, not look at my driver’s license and say “Hey, don’t work too hard to resucitate”. :eek:

tee
 
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tee_eff_em:
Call me “paranoid”, but that’s my feeling. My wife knows I am willing to be an organ donor, but I want them to track her down and ask her, not look at my driver’s license and say “Hey, don’t work too hard to resucitate”. :eek:

tee
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Well, I guess I’m a little paranoid too. All the medical people tell me, when you’re brain-dead, you’re dead! But there are a variety of definitions of brain death. So, if my brain’s ‘dead’, but my heart isn’t dead, and my kidneys aren’t dead, and other organs aren’t dead, am I really dead? One thing I’m sure of, if you take my organs, then I’ll be dead!

And I agree with you, it should be an individual decision each time, by a concerned relative based on the actual conditions. All medical situations are different.
 
Mom of one:
I don’t understand why a person would not want their organs donated, unless they have religious objections, but I’m not sure it should be automatic either. If I were dead, I wouldn’t care if they took my organs, but I would have a problem if they just took my son’s without my permission.
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In a nutshell Terri Schiavo!:eek: Look at how many times they said she was braindead(she wasn’t). Look at what kind of profit organ donation organizations could make?Look at the public opinion of life and the presumptions that were made just on Terris case. If this was mandatory how many people would be taken out for their organs?:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
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Lisa4Catholics:
In a nutshell Terri Schiavo!:eek: Look at how many times they said she was braindead(she wasn’t). Look at what kind of profit organ donation organizations could make?Look at the public opinion of life and the presumptions that were made just on Terris case. If this was mandatory how many people would be taken out for their organs?:eek: :eek: :eek:
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You got that right! It happens now!
 
Mom of one:
You got that right! It happens now!
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We are in a very dangerous time. People are looked upon as commodities and will be used for spare parts if things do not change!:mad: :eek: :banghead:
 
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Lisa4Catholics:
We are in a very dangerous time. People are looked upon as commodities and will be used for spare parts if things do not change!:mad: :eek: :banghead:
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Instead of the “survival of the fittest” it will be survival of the richest. Those with money will pay for “parts” from the “commodities”.
 
Mom of one:
Instead of the “survival of the fittest” it will be survival of the richest. Those with money will pay for “parts” from the “commodities”.
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Exactly!:eek: Remember the movie “coma”?:eek:
 
Yes, it was a book by Michael Crichton.

In the book, an unscrupulous doctor would take orders for organs from international bidders willing to pay big bucks.

When he got the right price, he would use a stealth bypass of the anesthesia system in his O.R. to put one of his unsuspecting patients into an artificial and lethal coma. With death imminent, he would harvest the organs and sell them to his buyers, then give his apologies to the grieving families for the surprise outcome of routine surgery.
 
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tee_eff_em:
Correction: The novel *Coma *was written by Robin Cook, not Michael Crichton

tee.
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Oh, sorry! Thanks for the correction! And my apologies to Robin Cook. I must have had Michael Crichton on my mind.
 
I have always signed my organ donation card and even remember telling a surgeon not to waste my organs should anything go wrong; nevertheless, given the present climate of bio-ethics which so frequently is at antipodes to the moral code I adhere to I have ripped up that card. Quite simply, too many doctors have become the high priests of secular humanism which is more and more aggressive, atheistic and anti-Christian. I know longer trust their judgement or assume they have developed a correct and informed sense of right and wrong.

The story of Theresa Schindler is the most notorious recent example of just how dehumanizing the medical establishment has become. Nonetheless, numerous heroes, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, have tirelessly sacrificed to protect the sacredness of life so this is not a general condemnation of all health -care professionals.

What I find so hypocritical is the pretense that so-called professionals and elitists will decide when it is morally correct to infringe on basic human rights because ‘they know better’. In this utilitarian society a lot of disabled may be deemed of no more worth to society than for their body parts. In a crisis situation and facing an increasing demand for organs a quick fix solution is just too easy an answer and too enticing a temptation. An education campaign is indeed needed but it shouldn’t operate as negative billing.
 
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