I’ve withdrawn from organ donation register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Sadly I have just withdrawn as protest against reproductive organ donation.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).

This

People on this thread are arguing that they don't want to be on the donation register because at some point in the future somebody might change the rules and might want their reproductive organs so they're going to safeguard themselves by opting out of something that isn't even an option but you think a recipient should have to give out all of their personal details in order to receive one because your "gift" comes with strings attached?

Why should I have to give up all of my personal information just to be in with a chance of getting a life saving organ? This is starting to sound more and more like the Victorian era when poor women had to prove their worthiness in order to get their children into an orphanage rather than let them starve in the streets ...

Also, what's to stop me from having a blemish free record, getting an organ and then 10 years later (a time I would never have seen without the organ) I go and knock someone over by drink driving ... What are you going to do then? Demand the organ back because I didn't live up to your expectations?

My fault, I should have made it clear I'm in Scotland.

They've been commonplace here for years with regard to people who have ongoing interactions with psychiatric care. The reason that I'm sceptical that my AD expressing my wish not to be transfused would be respected is precisely because of the number of people I advocate for who have set up an AD, their RMO has been aware of this prior to admission, then only the scantest of regard is actually paid to the content of the AD once the individual is actually hospitalised.

More often than not it's mundane stuff about bedding preferences, diet, and so on, and that does tend to be respected, but the more strident objections to specific medications and so on are often completely disregarded. What is doubly infuriating is the number of times whereby an inpatient will turn up to tribunal, ask why their AD was disregarded, and the RMO themselves won't even bother to turn up to explain. They're still very much looked upon as an 'in an ideal world these are my preferences' document, which is usually the explanation you receive for why they are not adhered to when you do actually challenge it.

Again, this would all be moot if there was a simple flag in my medical file that made it clear I have no wish to be transfused or be the recipient of a transplant. As unlikely as it is that I would ever find myself in an emergency scenario whereby I am unconscious and in need of plasma or whole blood, there are situations where that might become a possibility without me ever having regained consciousness, and that's what I wish to pre-empt.

Lads I am in Ireland and even I knew your law was changing 🙄

I dont understand why anyone would take a healthy organ into the ground to rot when it could be used to save a life.
I am an organ donor and my family know my wishes. I wouldnt like my womb to be donated (it may be an issue in a few decades) and my family will know this and refuse - job done.

Interesting read here though:
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/02/the-god-delusion-men-seeking-womb-transplants/

*I know that I will be dead and won’t care but the thought of a woman or man carrying a baby in the same womb I have disturbs me. I couldn’t care less about my other organs/blood.

I think it is important to have these discussions and learn how other people view topics.*

There is nothing to learn from an uneducated 'it disturbs me' point of view.

For a pre-campaign measure, yes, it's quite a lot.

If it was 37% after the campaign, yes, you could say the government hadn't done its job. But as is very clear from this thread, clearly a lot of people don't watch the news or follow news media in any form. That's why the campaign was needed.

@Diorama1 thats A great article and sets out a lot of my concerns

@saraclaraif you were only paid 37% of your salary would you still consider it quite a lot?

@captainjacksparrow that is such a ridiculously false equivalence that I don't know where to start.

Just because something might or might not happen in the future doesn’t mean my NOK cannot make a decision now. We make decisions everyday based on whatever existing information we have. If a potential recipient has a domestic violence or rape charge on their criminal record, I believe that my NOK should be given the choice to decline the donation. You don’t have to give out your information, the same way many people choose not to give that gift in the first place.

I withdrew from the register when I first found about the pressure from TRAs for womb transplants into transwomen, and the interest from some medical professionals in such procedures.

Once the register where I live has a box for reproductive organs which one can tick or leave blank, as it does for other organs, I'll be back on it.

The register is an computer system. Unless they are poorly designed, such systems are far easier to amend that a paper system. So get on with it.

I am opposed to all assisted reproduction. I don't want to facilitate that in any way. I've always had a note with my donor card that no tissues or organs can be used as direct donation or research purposes in that field.

It's my body. I don't have to justify my refusal to anyone or for any reason.

As many, many people have already pointed out on this thread, the organ donation system doesn't include uteruses so there is no need for an opt-in-opt-out box, everyone is opted out because they don't do this. Do you want them to add in a checkbox decoratively?

What the hell does it matter what happens to your womb when you're dead?!

I think you missed this part:

Once the register where I live has a box for reproductive organs which one can tick or leave blank, as it does for other organs, I'll be back on it.

It's about not supporting a misogynistic ideology. Some of us are thinking more deeply than the surface.

It's not though, is it? It's easy to tick a box (or not) and say you've done something amazing for women but you haven't really.

I didn't miss that. I'm asking why that tickbox would need to be there if it doesn't do anything. You can't opt-in or opt-out to reproductive organ donation via the organ donor register because those types of donation don't happen through this system. The PP said they would go back on the register once that tickbox is in place. Why?

The text in thd screenshot uses phrases that do not give me, and others, sufficient confidence in future actions.

I want cast-iron assurances.

"At the moment in the UK, there is a limb transplant programme, but face and uterus transplant programmes have not yet been introduced.
The current organ donation system does not cover rare or novel transplants such as limb, face or uterus donation. A person’s family would have to give explicit permission before their loved one’s limb, face or uterus could be donated.
It is the government’s intention to maintain the status quo for novel transplants, so express consent is required for donation of that organ or tissue to go ahead.
It has always been the government’s intention that the opt out system will only include routine transplants.

Yes, it is! Taking a stand against misogyny is doing something.

If you have such little trust in the system that you think they would introduce automatic opt-in for reproductive organs and keep it such a secret that even you, a Mumsnetter with a very active interest in the topic, wouldn't find out about it...why do you trust them to abide by whether or not you're on the register?

The PP said they would go back on the register once that tickbox is in place. Why?

Because that will give them assurance.

Why?

Wouldn't you be happy to accept an organ, or a family member if you needed it?

Surely just rather than ticking you want to donate all, which is far too open for my liking, you just tick the organs from the list that you do want to donate. I've now ticked everything except tissue so as far as I'm concerned that's it and nothing else can be donated.

I honestly don’t know how so many people missed in! I’m in…they can take anything they like! I’d love to have the chance to give others the chance of life when mine is over.