Gordon Brown in favour of presumed consent for organ donation

[WendyWeber]

It's a start

Yes, it is on the Boots advatage card too.

I work in a doctors.

And the article says, "They include doubling the number of transplant coordinators in the NHS to 200 and employing and training them centrally rather than by individual trusts.

Coordinators identify possible donors, talk to bereaved families and inform the national transplant list.

These people are highly trained professionals, and will be treatin every case with sensitivity.

Yes, you are right. But I thought the NHS was struggling financially. And the kind of infrastructure that Spain has was not built in a year. Also social acceptance is wider in Spain than in the UK, because as I said, the organ donation message is everywehere, all-year-round. It is not a question of getting a leaflet now, announcing the Gov plans, and that is it.
So regarding education campaigns, which is what should be done first, I don't see any real effort being done, and this is a key factor. One thing is to put registration forms on desks and a different thing is to create and communicate a message to the public that successfully persuades people to do the right thing. They have done it for smoking, for drink driving, why not for organ donation? If people are not first a) informed and b) convinced that the right thing to do is to donate, you can put a million reg forms on all the desks in the UK, in the back of Boots cards and you won't increase the number of donors. Social acceptance needs to be increased first, and then, apply the presumed consent IMO.

But people will always be squemish about dying - especially in a culture where we all think we will be forever 30.

Disclaimer - those of you under 30 may think you will feel old then, but it is the average age that most women would always want to be.

I think transplantation in general is rarely discussed and not understood that well in general.It does need to be talked about .

too many in generals

Well that is def true, noddy (your previous post ) - I think a lot of us on here are better educated than most about organ donation because of Peter.

However even the Daily Mail is in on the act (see my link - waaay down the thread - to the story about the little girl whose mother insisted on donating her organs after she was hit by a car) so if the Govt can manage to get more stories like that publicised, in media like the Mail/Express/Sun/Sky, it will help a lot.

You are spot on there MT, death is still taboo in our society, and many people behave as if they were going to live forever, as if death only happened to other people.
I think a more sensible approach to it would help, and that includes talking about it, mourning properly, and accept it as a part of our lives.
I find that people educated in some religion or other tend to have a different approach to death, maybe because of the hope in an afterlife, or because death is just a key moment not an end but a beginning of something else. I am not saying that if you are not religious, you haven't a good approach, but it definitely helps having had an education where people discuss and reflect on death. For people who believe in the existence of a soul, the body will be just a container of it. When this ceases function, it will rot away. If you think that all you are is a body, then you may feel more attached to its organs. I read some comments on the HYS debate in the BBC website and one of them said something like "all we have is our bodies"... maybe it's time to change that mentality. On the other hand, I may just be tallking boll*cks at this time of the morning...

I heard an intensive care doc say on the radio that if the relatives did not consent, that would override the patients wishes both with the current system & the proposed system. Personally I am in favour of presumed consent, I do not object to my organs being used, but cannot bring myself to fill out the card. Pathetic I know. Feel the same about making a will TBH. However I am concerned that Gordon Brown cannot be dispasssionate on this issue as he has a child with cystic fibrosis who may well need a transplant in the future, and rightly or wrongly some people are very much against this proposed change.

I was squeemish about carrying the card - but not about registering and being on the organ doner list.

I am, generally, pro donation. However have major concerns about how opt-outs would actually be recorded and this data retrieved in the event you are in a situation to donate.

This will only work if/when all NHS records are computerised. There is an opt-out system in place if you don't want your personal health records put on a huge great database which will only get hacked into, 'lost in the post' or generally abused by any nosey person in the NHS with a Smartcard. As an NHS employee, I can assure you I'll be opting out.

Anyhow, if you opt out, how will they establish what your wishes actually were? Will they assume you consented unless provided with written proof to the contrary? Will we see cases of organs being removed from someone who explicitly stated they didn't want to donate, only the doctors at the time didn't have this info as it wasn't recorded correctly or they couldn't find it?

Will those that opt out and have it recorded be subject to covert healthcare discrimination?

At least under the current system, this can't happen.

That is a really good point actually.

I have huge reservations about the NHS spine database. My GP has the information about the BigOptOut campain in his surgery as he isn't happy about it either. I started a thread on it months ago and the general consensus was that an NHS database was a good idea. I have a feeling that some of those opinions may have changed since the Child Benefit farce.

The Government will need to work really hard to gain public confidence in how well the data is protected.

"Will we see cases of organs being removed from someone who explicitly stated they didn't want to donate, only the doctors at the time didn't have this info as it wasn't recorded correctly or they couldn't find it?"

I very much doubt this would happen. Absebnce of consent is just that. With so many people not opting out too, there may even end up being surplus of potential doners so the pressure won't be as acute as it si now.