Opting out of organ donation

[ringme]

So the law has changed and this spring the NHS will consider you to be an organ donor automatically if you don’t opt out. I haven’t had a chance to really consider this all yet, WIBU to opt out at this stage until I have time to think about it or is that a selfish move given that 408 people died last year waiting for a donor?

What will you be doing?

www.organdonation.nhs.uk/helping-you-to-decide/about-organ-donation/faq/what-is-the-opt-out-system

It's been law in Wales for a while now. I was already on the organ donor register and don't have any issue with being harvested. My family knows my wishes. I wouldn't accept one for myself.

I can't give blood anymore but my organs can be used.

I think the people saying they will 'give their body to science' need to check that possibility as my understanding is that there are some quite stringent requirements for bodies used for medical research.

I think the next step needs to be ensuring that if you are 'pro' donating your organs, that your family can’t then over rule that.

I don’t agree. I don’t want to make it any harder for grieving families. Often organ donors can be healthy people who have died suddenly in accidents. That’s often very difficult to come to terms with.

'Being terminally ill might change your mind...'

Nah...

@Teateaandmoretea Well that's kind of unlikely as only a relatively small number of people die in intensive care for a random reason that doesn't involve cancer or something that makes organs unsuitable. It's a very 'select' group who this ever actually happens to directly.

Do you understand that donated organs directly save people's lives?

All donors will be willing, otherwise they'd opt out

Hypothetical situation. Someone wants to opt out. They plan on doing it later that day but they get hit by a bus before hand. Then what?

What about people without capacity to make decisions? What happens to them?

Opting out seems extremely selfish to me

Surely the people who don't like the state's presumption that they will be happy to donate get this

I AM on the register. That doesn't mean I agree the State should take other peoples' organs without consent, or assuming consent.

I'm already an organ donor, one of the first things I signed up for upon arrival to this country / after getting my NHS number. I'm unsure what reason people would have not to, unless there are religious beliefs involved for example. I'd rather someone gets to live than have them rot inside my dead body. But then I recycle as well.

I don’t agree. I don’t want to make it any harder for grieving families. Often organ donors can be healthy people who have died suddenly in accidents. That’s often very difficult to come to terms with

The having to consent and process of questions you don't know the answer to as it stands isn't easy either.

@DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult Every time you spend your money on a night out/chocolate/luxuries, you are choosing not to give it to charity, so are actively making lives worse for selfish reasons. That's right, it's your money, so if you donate it to a charity, that's great, it's a gift, if you choose to keep it for whatever purpose you choose, that's fine too, it's yours to do with as you please, whatever the 'rights' and 'wrongs' are.

The accurate analogy here would be choosing to be buried with all of your money and belongings so that you can keep them and prevent anyone else benefiting from them even though you're... dead.

I do think a lot more could be done to secure that consent - as I said above, there are lots of opportunities and I'm sure posters on this thread can think of many more.

The opt out situation doesn't sit right with me. The state automatically having the right to your body once you're brain dead is the start of a very slippery slope imo

This. And I have opted out for this reason.

@formerbabe Hypothetical situation. Someone wants to opt out. They plan on doing it later that day but they get hit by a bus before hand. Then what?

Then they're dead.

I don't like opt in due to the underlying assumption that the default owner of your body is the state.

Again, this is not correct. The next of kin still needs to consent for organ donation to take place.

Do you understand that donated organs directly save people's lives?

Have you actually read my other posts?

@Lockheart - The person who is in greatest medical need should get the organ, regardless of whether they're on the register themselves.

Yes. I agree with that. I don't know why you tagged me as I never suggested otherwise.

I stated I think opting out is an unbelievably selfish position to take, particularly if you would take an organ if you needed one. That is not the same as thinking someone should be denied an organ unless they are on the register.

I think they should get the organ, despite being pathologically selfish.

there are some quite stringent requirements for bodies used for medical research

It's a bit of a logistical nightmare and depends on when and where you die, there are also transportation issues. I've looked into it but given up.

I'm registered as a donor.

If any bit of me will benefit someone else, they are very welcome to it if I don't need it any more.

@RhubarbTea This. And I have opted out for this reason.

Congratulations on your empty, selfish, stupid 'protest' that may well result in another human being dying.

Im like @PaperFlowers4.
I have a card for organ donation already so the new law isnt going to hange anything for me.
However, I will not give my uterus.

Yep. It's when someone like you makes an active decision to take themselves off the organ donor list to make some sort of pathetic point, happily allowing another human being (or more than one) to die in order to make a point that literally no one will notice. Congratulations on your stupid, selfish, childish action.

You sound insane.

You might not like this, but I have absolutely no obligation to relinquish parts of my body to anyone else, just as no one is obligated to do the same for me.

I've been on the register my whole adult life and I hope this works as well as it appears. If it is the same premise as before it won't. Even if someone was on the register the surviving family had the power to veto the wishes. That is all kinds of wrong and very selfish of someone to do that. Opt out if you wish but you should also not have the right to receive an organ. By all means take your time but think about it fully.

The having to consent and process of questions you don't know the answer to as it stands isn't easy either.

That’s my point, if families don’t think that can cope with the organ donation process just after their loved one has died in tragic circumstances, I don’t think they should be vilified.

I can understand the squeamish aspect of this and wanting to take a bit of time to think about it. It’s somewhat disgusting to consider a piece of your body inside someone else.

However, imagine if you or a loved one was in a horrible accident or got a disease that would kill you/them without access to organ donation. I would be forever grateful to an organ donor in such a situation. And if I’m willing to use the system, I feel I should be willing to donate myself.

Personally, I like the idea of giving precedence for getting an organ to those that opt in.

I do not like the state owning people's bodies which an opt out system creates.

It puts those who are particularly vulnerable in a position which I find worrying. Especially in a climate where health care is becoming much more rationed and with doctors in a position where they have to chose between patients.

A patient who has no family, has language barriers or has some sort of learning difficulty therefore is in a position where it is possible that they are not given health care of the same level as someone else who is privileged because they become percieved as of more value and importance as donors rather than having treatment. They are less able to argue or have someone advocate for them to continue to have care.

I find an opt in system far less problematic in this way and vulnerable to conflicts in interests and NHS rationing because there are no guarentees that organs will be donated.

I'm very much of the 'presumed consent is an oxymoron. If it's presumed, it isn't consent. As a concept, introduced in law, it's very worrying.' school of thought