To not like the organ donation pressure?

[AtSea1979]

Don't get me wrong I fully support an opt out rather than in policy.
However DD (7 yo) has come home with a form and is asking lots of questions and it all seems a bit much. She has asked me what would I do if she died and whether I'd let them remove her organs etc and whether I'd do the same if it was me. The head cheerfully informed me they have an important letter we all should sign.
I find it all a bit bully tactics, surely it's a personal choice and nothing to do with anyone else.

I wish we had an 'opt out' system like Wales, I believe everyone should donate. Having said that I wouldn't want my 7 yr old being asked to sign something. 7 year olds don't have the emotional intelligence to deal with the idea of giving their organs away, it would horrify my DS who is 8. He doesn't need to think such grim thoughts as where his body parts will end up if he dies.

My cousin died when she was very young, she needed a new kidney and my uncle has kidney disease and will probably need a new kidney, I'm not at all against donating organs. I wish everyone would.

One of the first things I did after having my beautiful daughter was to register her as an organ donor. My rationale was that if I was in a situation where she died, I probably would be so distraught and unable to think straight but the decision had already been made. I know it would utterly devastate me, the idea of her being cut up but in the long term, it would be the right choice. It goes without saying I'm registered as a donor too. I think it will be the most selfless thing I could possibly do to leave a legacy of life for more people.

Cardibach are you advocating taking organs without consent?

It's a very emotive subject and it's very easy to see why people might balk at signing organ donation documents for their children.

I suppose all you can do is ask yourself whether you would want your child to receive a donation to save their life and act accordingly.

Children generally can't receive adult organs I believe which is why, sadly, parents are asked to think about this.

As to growing organs in laboratories - yes, that will no doubt come but it's a long way off yet.

I understand why you would feel uncomfortable and upset at the thought of your child being in a position where they could donate organs. It must be a horrifying thing to go through. But if it did happen and you and your husband had never discussed organ donation, is that really the time that you want to make that decision? Or we see so many cases where parents and children die in a car crash, who makes that decision then if you haven't opted in? I don't think it's a bad thing at all to be stimulating that kind of conversation, even if it's mostly between you and your DH. No need to go into graphic detail with kids, just that some parts of your body can help other people, like blood that grown ups can give a few times a year.

Surely your children know that death happens? I'm from rural Ireland so literally came face to face with dead bodies as a child at wakes. It was just a natural part of life, normally the person was old or sick and their body was worn out, sometimes God just wanted that person to live with him. Either way, their body wasn't really them any more. We didn't discuss organ donation at that age, but I don't think it would have caused me lasting psychological damage.

This should be opt out. For everyone with all details held on a register.

Any person (including children who's wishes have been decided by their parents) who opts out should be illegible to receive any organ. (Or at least go to the back of the queue being those who have opted in, regardless of clinical priority).

It should not be possible to change ones wishes after they become ill.

If my dh died I would agree to donation as that would be his wishes. That's would be hard but I would do it despite my opposition. The majority on this thread would probably approve.

If I died I would trust him to refuse despite his views because that is my wish. It sounds less like the majority would respect that.

I think anything that erodes our conception of each individual being able to happen to their own body, before or after death is an area with some very, very dark corners.

This kind of area should be treated with especial caution by any woman who believes that women have the right to chose whether they have children and how many children they have.

The attitude that it's ok to shoot political prisoners in the back of the neck and then sell their organs on the open market goes hand in hand with the attitude that it's fine for the state to tell people how many children they can have.

So any precedent for the state making automatic decisions about bodily autonomy needs to be treated with extreme caution.

I think organ donation is a decision that individuals should be encouraged and supported to make. And I do think that more people should make that decision and that more effort should be put into collecting the information.

Perhaps in the same way as screening, or voter registration- letter at regular intervals to ask what your position is. (Not actuall on the voter registration form or screening letter though- too heavy handed). it could even be like voting in Australia- you do have to register a decision periodically, but there is no presumption that the decision is one thing or the other.

We do seem to be heading in a direction where people are increasingly being treated as cattle who have to herded to the "right" decision by government, whether they, rather than being engaged and involved in a decision making process. And that is a worrying trend.

So I do understand why people who agree with organ donation but donit agree with automatic consent are coming from- presumed consent is a dangerous mechanism, it can give people in positions of power a bit of God complex and they get used to not having to ask for permission.

Life or death and emergency situations will always be invoked into pressurizing people into quickly making the "right" decision for highly emotional reasons, but that is so prone to manipulation. Accepting that kind of manipulation as legitimate is exactly what leads us to post-factual politics.

I heard Jeremy Clarkson say something awful about Jade Goody, along the lines of "What a hideous waste of organs". It betrayed an awful attitude- that someone else was just spare parts really. And I think a lot of people secretly hold that kind of attitude about other people.

There are likely to be at least one or two children at any primary school that are going to be upset by being made to think about whether or not they want their organs to be donated after they die. And even if we could guarantee no child would worry about it, it still isn't the schools place to encourage children to donate their organs.

mumble, Clarkson's actual quote about Jade Goody was longer than that but I won't repeat it here because it's one of the most offensive things he's ever said - and that's quite something. It had nothing to do with organ donation and everything to do with his being a repellent human being.

mumble I think regular requests to update whether or not you'd like to be on the register and for which bits would be a good move. Say every three years (or whatever) you get a letter that explains what donation means, where your bits could be going, etc and asking you to fill in a form and send it back in the freepost envelope/online/whatever. It would mean that people are kept informed of what the process actually is (I presume this has changed in the last 50 odd years and will continue to change) and they can change their minds as their life changes (they may choose to opt in or out, or decide that actually they aren't comfortable donating their heart or their eyes or that they are) It also means that people are regularly prompted to actually discuss it and maybe to think about their health.

I personally would want all my organs donated, even if the idea of someone else having my eyes makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, and have told my family and DH this. However, everyone has the right to decide what to do with their bodies. I just think that a lot of organs aren't donated because these conversations were never had and/or decisions were made at the most upsetting times possible.

IIRC, if you do sign up, your organs aren't simply harvested without consulting next of kin. It makes it an easier decision for DH, though, if I pop my clogs before him and still have some usable parts and the medical staff are able to say "I see PickAChew has signed up on the organ donor register..." He knows form conversatoions , anyhow, that I'm fine with it, but in that awful fuddle when Bad Things have happened, its a simple confirmation that it's something I wanted, which takes the burden of second guessing away from him.

And yes, when I die, most of what is "me" will be gone and I'll be little more than meat that's going to end up on the rather too well done side, anyhow. While some people do struggle with the concept (my ex, for example), DH professes no sentimental attachment to my left kidney.

YANBU

I wont donate my organs and there's always some sort of bullying on these threads along the lines of 'what a horrible person you are not to donate'

Because you know, that's such a great way to turn people to your way of thinking

I would donate my own organs in a heartbeat. I give blood and am in the bone marrow register.

When I had dd (she's a bit of a miracle baby) I thought long and hard about what I would do in the event she died. I couldn't (and still can't, really) bear to think about her organs being removed, but on the other hand if she needed a transplant I'd be there begging for it, so really there is no option.

I would have to. How could I deny someone else's child a chance to live, because mine had not?

I hope I never have to do either.

One thing I've always wondered. Does organ donation mean your organs definitely get used to help someone else directly, or could they also go off o a lab just for "research" purposes?

Not that anyone would really want to clone me!

"YANBU

I wont donate my organs and there's always some sort of bullying on these threads along the lines of 'what a horrible person you are not to donate'

Because you know, that's such a great way to turn people to your way of thinking hmm"

What do you want me to do, beg you? Not bloody likely. Not actually very keen on sharing thread with you, to be frank.

Why Bertrand Russell? It's individual choice.

Of course it's an individuL choice.

However, there is a right choice and a wrong choice.

There's a separate register for that, I think, daisy.

Interesting username Bertrand Russell given the commitment to freedom of thought that won your namesake a Nobel prize

Of course there is not a right and wrong choice.

It's the individual's body or their kin's body and they get to make that moral call not you or anyone else. There is no objective moral stance on this. It's personal.

I am signed up to donate my organs. My late sister had kidney failure and over a period of around 12 years had 3 kidney transplants - none of which would have been possible without someone donating (granted, one was a family member giving a kidney whilst alive). If anyone against organ donation could only see the pain and heartache that someone

I am signed up to donate my organs. My late sister had kidney failure and over a period of around 12 years had 3 kidney transplants - none of which would have been possible without someone donating (granted, one was a family member giving a kidney whilst alive). If anyone against organ donation could only see the pain and heartache that someone needing a transplant is in (as well as their families) then an opt out scheme is desirable.

And opting out is not morally reprehensible

However, there is a right choice and a wrong choice.

Yes, and it's different for each individual. What is right for one can easily be very different for another. People make very different but equally right choices for themselves all the time.