I’ve withdrawn from organ donation register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Sadly I have just withdrawn as protest against reproductive organ donation.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

There isn't an opt-out because it doesn't exist. It isn't an organ they are asking for. They are only asking for donations on the list. If it ever becomes an organ they want to use routinely, they will ask for it, and then you will be able to opt-out.

I don't believe in life at all costs and the thought of someone else's organs in my body keeping me alive is utterly and completely repugnant to me.

I am sorry about your friend, I lost a friend to kidney failure myself a few years ago and I miss her.

You do realise this is untrue.

They most certainly can devise a consent option that allows a woman to expressly opt out of donating reproductive organs and tissues without it being classed a routine donation.

They can literally do anything when it comes to seeking consent.

You are trying any way to avoid giving the potential donor the reassurance they need to consent. It's bizarre.

Plus, while they say it will take 10-20 years before they've mastered it; there will be still a lot of experimentation happening, where they will use the "donated" reproductive organs to work on figuring how to make it come together.

This exactly.

I opted out of 'all tissue' or however it's worded but opted in for specific organs of my choice.

I didn’t say that. I’m talking about the tick boxes on the organ registration site for routine organ donations like liver, kidney, heart as that is what these posters have asked for. You can’t add “uterus” or “ovaries” or “cervix” on that system as tick boxes without them being auto opt in ones.

It is true within the constraints of the current system. As in “an easy fix” if you want to spend a few £m on a new IT system then, yes they could devise a wholly different system just to give you good feels from a screen.

Exactly!

I cannot express how convey enough how you have zero idea what it’s like to be in that position if you’ve been unfortunate enough
to be in it.

Great well let’s spend a few £m of the strapped NHS budget just on making people more reassured that they are definitely legally opted out of nonroutine donations unless they give their explicit consent or their NOK does.

It won't cost £1m to put an additional consent in.

Why do you want to deny women this reassurance?

Give it to them and you get more on the donor register.

All consent should be informed and freely given this solves the problem and gets more on the register.

Does anyone know why it changed from opt in to opt out?

I don't care. I think it's nice I might be able to help an infertile person. They can take what they want, I'm dead

One persons opinion
That they think might be at least 10 years, if that
Does not mean it will be in 10 years.
I'm going with refusal to see to fit own world view

In 1931 so no it hasn't been news in our lifetimes. If an unsuccessful one happened now it would be news, if a successful one happened it would be much bigger news and more people would hear about it.

You personally have absolutely no risk of not hearing about the first successful uterus transplant into a trans woman. You have a strong interest in this topic and you're a Mumsnetter so it's impossible you'll miss it.

In the absence of an advance directive or NOK, remember you are legally opted OUT of all nonroutine organ donations and they cannot take your uterus or any reproductive organ. The other bits were for extra reassurance.

It may help allay some women's fears. So that is reason enough if you want to save lives. However as I said earlier, in my and in many women's views, it would be too little too late. That trust imo is irretrievably broken. For me at least. I don't trust them anyway, not now. And as I said, for me, they'd have to do a 180 on a lot of things before I ever trusted them ever again. UK surgeons doing the study with trans women, and announcing that it's a possibility even, was the final nail in the coffin. As I've said repeatedly I simply have no trust whatsoever they would respect any decision and not try and sneak something in. My trust basically rock bottom - zero.

But, some women may be swayed if there is something like Do Not Consent section and you can list what you don't consent to. It's such a little thing to ask for if it meant saving people's lives. I would need far more than that to be convinced, but if it helps other women I think they should go for it.

Exactly

What do you think will happen to the uteri of women who don't click this problem-solving opt-out button? I mean, they've technically given permission for the organ to be taken and used, which will just further the research you're so opposed to. Whereas, the way things stand now, there isn't an option to use wombs. But you want to make it an option.

I've already said, repeatedly, that I have no trust in them regardless.

It's interesting to me how the i newspaper report centres on Professor Richard Smith, while the Metro report centres on his colleague Isabel Quiroga, I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's a reflection of their readership… Ms Quiroga is a world-renown transplant surgeon operating out of one of the world's most famous transplant units, one I'm personally familiar with.

It's worth pointing out that many transplants are virtually 'routine' nowadays in terms of their technical difficulty – for those who don't know, a kidney transplant involves bunging a third kidney in a human body, they don't actually remove either of the malfunctioning kidneys. The risk lies not in the surgery itself so much as the failure/rejection rate afterwards and the fact that that the immuno-suppresants and anti-rejection drugs you have to take for life leave you open to all sorts of other potential complications. I'm guessing that a deceased donor womb transplant is far more complex and may indeed never be a possibility.

That said, I do understand the concerns of @Sueveneers and others on this thread about how easily our wishes can be steamrollered and that past experience has led to a deep mistrust of what we are promised.

Well losing potential donors isn’t exactly a great outcome either.

It shouldn't cost to create a basic database.

UK surgeons doing the study with trans women, and announcing that it's a possibility even, was the final nail in the coffin

Did they announce it or were they asked a question?

So imagine you are a surgeon who is researching womb transplants and someone asks "Would it be possible for transwomen to have this?" and they reply - maybe, in 10 - 20 years time, possibly...

That is different to an announcement. It's someone being asked about a theoretical possibility.

Hardly any transwomen get gender reassignment surgery compared to the numbers of transwomen there are. That takes a long time to happen.

The NHS has limited funds.
The recipient will need IVF as well - which is expensive and limited by age, need etc.

But if people feel that they need to opt out of being on the transplant donor register because of this possibility, that's their choice.

It does seem something that seems very unlikely to happen - and if your womb is donated, it's very unlikely it's going to a transwoman.

Yeah it will cost at least that. I PM’d software development and you have to factor in not only the coding, testing, deployment, staff training to inform patients but also the blooming public awareness campaign and PR relations to 35 million women for years and years. Oh, and before you can do that there’s the internal costs of doing the budget requests justifying the money for it to be approved by Parliament, the costs of briefing up to the Health Secretary. Writing and giving various officials their little press sheets so they know what to say to the media.

Once it’s up, then you need extra help line and chat support to answer the worried questions of 35 m women what is this new tick box, what’s it mean, should I tick it? What do I do if I have had a hysterectomy should I inform someone and the million inane questions that will come through.

You haven’t the first clue what it would cost. It’s not an “easy fix”