I’ve withdrawn from organ donation register

[Purpledogcollar]

I give blood and have always been very pro organ donation.

Sadly I have just withdrawn as protest against reproductive organ donation. I can’t support it and am very conflicted as would like to donate other organs.

What are your views and is it a hasty decision (although not sure I would change my mind).

Ooooò good question.

OP seems a shame. The chance to save a life overpowers my feelings about womb donation. Seem pretty high stakes.

CherryMaDeara
Maybe there’s a middle ground, which is officially opting out of organ donation but naming a Power of Attorney who can decide and advocate on your behalf should the situation arise.

Thats a good idea, it also removes the emotional pressure on NOK.

I've opted out, due to the idea that a meat eater would get my organs and spend the rest of their lives devouring animals and murdering hundreds of innocent creatures that didn't ask to be killed. Personal preference.

Ah this makes me so sad. I'm a renal nurse and have seen first hand the difference a kidney transplant can make to someone's life. That said I was always a bit weirded out by cornea transplant so opted out of that. Can you not do the same?

It's not about thinking I know more than a transplant surgeon.

It's a realistic knowledge that with the amount of people with my condition on the same medications etc. and the amount of people who receive organ transplants both being small numbers on a population scale - their is unlikely to have been any studies to prove if there is a risk or not.

I would be excluded from live donation for this reason so I would not want to run the risk post death. I will have part of me going towards medical study instead.

Definitely not an easy decision or one I've taken lightly but glad to hear you find it "laughable" 🙃

So if you don't think they would abide by your organ donation preferences, despite the laws and ethics around them, what makes you think that they would respect your decision to opt out since they're governed by the same laws and ethics?

I’m sorry, but who are “they” that are “after female reproductive organs” and so on? As far as I know the NHS hasn’t gone all Monty Python on us yet and sending medics round to collect organs before we are done using them.

Wow, you actually trust the NHS? After all the scandals and criminal wrongdoings over the years? You do you though.

I'm really curious about the 'for who'. Could you expand please?

@kagerou I hear you, I have a common neurological condition and most medical staff I meet haven't even heard of it and have no idea of its effects.

I've opted out now.

considering i am very much of the belief that i dont give a fuck what they do with my fleshy bits once i die, because well.. i'll be dead, and i don't need them any more.. yes i do trust them.

Last i checked they're not planning on 'coming after' any of my bits while i'm still alive, and then using them for nefarious frakenscience reasons.. so why would i worry?

Ridiculous, petty, ignorant.

Let's hope all the twats withdrawing don't need any organs for themselves or their loved ones any time in the future.

As this would appear to be a genuine concern for a significant number of women (based on the voting), surely the easiest way to resolve it would be for the transplant authority to add now, in advance, the option of "reproductive organs for research/transplant", so that those people who are concerned could actively opt out now, before it actually becomes a real issue in a few years. Saying those are specific unique organs/tissues that would need family consent doesn't really sound very watertight, so setting it up in advance sounds reasonable.

Conflict of Interest: no longer on the register due to a host of medical conditions.

The 34 year old mother of 2 who desperately needs a liver transplant to help her watch her children grow up will be relieved that no one is getting your womb.

Perhaps @MNHQ could consider deleting this thread. The misinformation being spread on this site, on this issue, is going to cost lives.

And you appear to struggle with the difference between fetus and uterus, so I’d worry more about that and less about other people’s grasp on ethics and consent.

I am more worried about what will happen in the real world, in the very near future when people die because of the fear mongering spite being spouted on here by people who are the equivalent of children playing toy soldiers, making up scenarios where they get to be the hero, than I am about a hypothetical scenario 5 years from now.

The ignorance about the reality of transplant medicine let alone post transplant life would be laughable if it wasn’t so destructive.

But hey, as long as you get to say you are standing up for women, who cares if people die.

think i might add "Do not give to any Transphobes or selfish fuckers who opted out because they thought someone was going to steal their womb for transplant" to my paperwork when i die.

The NHS employs 1.25 million full-time staff in England alone.

Are "they" all conspiring together to do crime, lie to the public, concoct scandals and feather their own nests?

Or is it only the top tier of, say, several hundred thousand executives? Their secret conspiratorial meetings must be epic!

I know the amount of anti rejection drugs you have to take & how careful you have to be about infections. To me, it feels like still having to live with the fear of dying even after the transplant, plus after covid thinking about how careful transplant patients had to be for three years. My cousin had his transplants but was in hospital at least twice a year with problems & then his liver started to fail again & he was told he wasn't strong enough for another transplant, he was terminally ill for nearly a year before he died.

But if they delete the thread people are still going to think these ridiculous things. At least now there are people giving an informed perspective.

@Nat6999 was he not glad to have had some extra time though?

I don't want my reproductive organs being used even for experimental purposes. I'd never considered that they would be. Aside from my endometriosis, ectopic pregnancy and multiple miscarriages I'd hope my age would make them unusable

But what if the "experimental purposes" they wanted to use your reproductive organs for was to find a way to prevent/cure endometriosis, ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages?

I have endometriosis and PCOS and have also suffered miscarriages. If donating my reproductive organs for medical research meant they were studied by people whose research and purpose was trying to actively prevent other women suffering the way I, and many others have, then why wouldn't I donate?

Currently you can only donate for research if they ask you to, due to a medical reason, or if you proactively contact the relevent authority to ask if they want your tissue to study (at which point there would be a discussion of how exactly it would be used and what research would be possible). I would happily donate under those circumstances

The 34 year old mother of 2 who desperately needs a liver transplant to help her watch her children grow up will be relieved that no one is getting your womb.

That's not why I've opted out. I think the chances of someone being given my reproductive organs must be close to nil (I have endometriosis for starters). It's my fault. I should have explained. Sorry.

Quite - this is the reality of post transplant life for a significant proportion and conveniently glossed over by those who seek to use emotional blackmail on those of use who disagree with their opinion.

If anything this tread has confirmed my decision that opting out of being a donor is absolutely right for me.