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AIBU?

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Original poster

To opt-out of organ donation

407 replies

Jamiek80 · 12/12/2017 21:13

I am currently on the organ donor list however if the government make it opt out instead of opt in I will choose to opt out. I have a few reasons firstly though I’m on the register I actually have no clue what is involved, What can be taken, how much is taken, what happens to my body and a whole load more questions. Secondly if opt out what will happen can they just take everything I mean it’s possible to transplant a head these days so why not just store whole bodies just in case? Thirdly would the government make it simple to opt-out? Finally if you start opt out technically the government owns your body post death at what point do they decide they can take your organs while you’re still alive? I’m not against organ donation as I said I’m on the register but perhaps a better approach would be more available information, I wouldn’t even know how to re-register these days!

OP posts:
Awwlookatmybabyspider · 12/12/2017 22:25

I think it's fantastic that someone will hopefully be given the gift of life after I pass. I mean that's obviously assuming my ticker ect are all in working order.
I agree that if you're not on the organ donation register you shouldn't be able to recieve someone's organs. After all you either agree or you don't. You can't change your mind when it's in your favor.

crunchymint · 12/12/2017 22:27

Agree organs are a gift. People are entitled to opt out.

KurriKurri · 12/12/2017 22:28

I’m guessing that the vast majority of people on here are not in favour of opt out as this gives people the option to refuse and they seem to be of the opinion everyone should be forced to give up whatever organs are required.

No I don't think that is the case, I think the majority of people are in fvaour of transplant or at least indifferent to what happens to their body parts. But also many people don't bother to get themselves on the register. Opt out means that if you are very oppposed to organ donation than you are not forced to do it, but alos ensures that opportunities to take organs for donation are not lost because people have not bothered to get themselves on the register.

penguinowl · 12/12/2017 22:28

What they would do is take a organ needed to save a life.... exactly like they did for my best friend after she spent 28 years on dialysis!

This meant my friend is alive to see for her children age 7 and 9 as frankly a transplant was her only hope left as dialysis wasn't working any more

MikeAlphaMikeAlpha · 12/12/2017 22:29

OP I'm sorry but I find your comment really silly. It is a personal choice and will remain a personal choice but the lives that would be saved if it was less of a "thing" and was just the norm when someone died, would be incredible. I'm sure you could still specify what you were happy with and I find it very unlikely that if this comes into Force that our high streets would look like day of the living dead Hmm please don't scaremonger, it's a wonderful thing that we can all do and we won't know a thing about it when it happens to us!

bonbonours · 12/12/2017 22:30

The point someone made about funerals being important for loved ones is totally irrelevant. You can still have a funeral and / or memorial service even when there is no body at all eg when someone is lost at sea, burnt completely in a fire etc.

ArcheryAnnie · 12/12/2017 22:31

Not only am I happy for my organs to be used to save other people, I'd also be happy for the unusable bits to be used in a body farm, or used to train cadaver dogs, and suchlike. You can't donate to a body farm or to train cadaver dogs in the UK yet, but there are suggestions you should be allowed to. (Cadaver dogs are currently trained using pigmeat, and even blood donated by their handlers, which isn't ideal.)

I won't be using my body once I am dead. If the bits can be used to improve the life of the living (which includes my son) then why not?

Jeffstar79 · 12/12/2017 22:32

My family has been directly affected by organ donation. My life would be completely different but for some incredibly selfless person. Until you're left in the position where you're hoping another family will make the most generous of donations in their darkest hour you can never understand the power of organ donation.

bonbonours · 12/12/2017 22:33

Oh, and I think it should be an opt-out thing. If people have strong feelings about it then they would carry a card / be on a list etc.

It would save the trauma of loved ones having to decide what should happen at a time when they are distraught and not thinking straight, if the automatic thing was that organs are donated if medically viable.

PersianCatLady · 12/12/2017 22:33

You can donate your body to some university hospitals in the UK but it is more complicated than you would expect.

multivac · 12/12/2017 22:33

I totally agree that organ donation is a gift. I absolutely wouldn't specify that someone should agree to donate their own before accepting mine. I reserve the right, however, to think that the person who is prepared to accept an organ - for themselves, or on behalf of someone for whom they are able to make that decision - but refuses even to consider donating their own, is guilty of, at best, a lack of logical consistency.

Julie8008 · 12/12/2017 22:34

Why would anyone prefer to throw dead organs in the ground to feed worms rather than saving peoples lives. I despair of people some time.

BatShite · 12/12/2017 22:35

I’m guessing that the vast majority of people on here are not in favour of opt out as this gives people the option to refuse and they seem to be of the opinion everyone should be forced to give up whatever organs are required.

No, noone should be forced Hmm You would have a ard time finding anyone who would say that there should be no option to say no

Whitney168 · 12/12/2017 22:35

Take the lot I say and if you can make a good stock from the bones!

Amen to that ...

SlothMama · 12/12/2017 22:35

YABVVVVU
When you are dead you won't care about your organs, what's happened to them... I hope that you don't plan on expecting anyone elses organs if you ever need to have a transplant. Personally I'd feel much better that my deceased loved one had gone on to save the lives of others.

PersianCatLady · 12/12/2017 22:35

Of course you can opt-out from giving and receiving.

That isn't mean or unkind, if your concerns or issues prevent you giving parts of your dead body then surely they stop you receiving other people's as well?

slashlover · 12/12/2017 22:36

I’m guessing that the vast majority of people on here are not in favour of opt out as this gives people the option to refuse and they seem to be of the opinion everyone should be forced to give up whatever organs are required.

No, but decisions should be made on facts.

organdonor.gov/about/what.html Was it this site? If so, it's American.

LondonLassInTheCountry · 12/12/2017 22:41

What about loved ones a funeral is an important part of greaving. Once it’s opt out where are the limits? How would your family feel if your face was transplanted and they started seeing you everyday in the street? What happens when they decide they don’t have enough suitable dead donors will you be forced to give up a kidney while alive? Or if they have too many organs what happens then will there be regulation on how organs are disposed of?..........

Wow...
You can live with one kidney :)
There will NEVER be to many organs.
This has to be a Troll or Joey essex?

Jeffstar79 · 12/12/2017 22:46

I'll add that I new several people that were completely against organ donation until it affected us.It's one of these things people never think will happen to them.

LondonLassInTheCountry · 12/12/2017 22:46

My lungs, kidneys, bowels and intestines are no good and neither is my blood.

So not sure what they would take.
My heart and eyes. Face and skin are ok tho. They can take what they want.

I will more than likely need a kidney transplant soon amd im 34.

FrancisCrawford · 12/12/2017 22:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

crunchymint · 12/12/2017 22:47

Not everyone will donate blood. It does not mean they should not get blood if needed.

Branleuse · 12/12/2017 22:47

Cant quite understand why someone would rather their organs rotted away than be used to save lives.

slashlover · 12/12/2017 22:47

Or if they have too many organs what happens then will there be regulation on how organs are disposed of?

Just seen this. Even just now, with an organ shortage, they are not taken unless there is a suitable recipient and the transplant is viable. Organs only last for a certain amount of time before they start to deteriorate.

Buscake · 12/12/2017 22:48

Organ donation is not as straight forward as it sounds. It’s a long, drawn out and highly emotional process. I went through it with my father who was pronounced brain dead following a stroke. We all wanted to donate his organs (as did he, he was a donor) but after two days of mental torture waiting for him to fulfil the criteria to be pronounced ‘braindead’ my mother could not take any more and we turned the machines off. It would have taken at least 24hrs after his brain stem died before donors could have been located and the organs harvested. It sounds trite, but we all believe we acted in his best interests. His mental experiences in icu of being paralysed by a prior stroke sounded like a dystopian nightmare. The reality is that organ donation is hard. The donation nurses discuss every detail with you (as a relative). Some of the things mentioned upthread are laughable - no one will forcibly take organs. My father was treated with dignity and respect every step of the way, and the doctors all acted in his best intersts,not ours.

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