Opt out of organ donation

[Wolfgirrl]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/transgender-woman-should-allowed-womb-22270768.amp?__twitter_impression=true

I cannot be the only one to think the new opt-out organ donation scheme will result in a lot of wombs being stolen without permission, if this comes to pass?

Who cares? You'll be dead.

Would you be happy with a pedophile/murderer/rapist having bits of your body?

No? Well other people have standards of who they'd like their bits going to and who not.

I care. I’m all for organ donation in theory but I’m absolutely NOT for donating my reproductive organs and allowing this emperor’s new clothes charade to go even further than it already has. No fucking way

This is how I feel.

@Soubriquet

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/opt-out-organ-donation-organs-and-tissues-excluded-from-the-new-system/organs-and-tissues-to-be-excluded-from-the-opt-out-organ-donation-system-quick-read

You need to scroll down a bit but it is there.

Ah. Thank you.

That’s awful that the nhs link doesn’t include the reproductive tissues as something to opt out of

I guess I will just have to make sure my next of kin is fully aware of what they can and can’t donate

Jesus.... I would not want my foetus or embryo donated. I would want them buried with me

brain
spinal cord
face
nose
mouth
trachea (windpipe)
arm
upper arm
forearm
hand
finger
leg
thigh
lower leg
foot
toe
ovary
uterus
penis
testicle
foetus
placenta
umbilical cord
embryo (inside the body)
limbal stem cells (eye cells that allow the cornea to regenerate) – if they are used for an ATMP
liver cells – if they are used for an ATMP
pancreatic cells – if they are used for an ATMP

Thanks for the link @JonHammIsMyJamm

I've opted out.

I don’t want to opt out completely...I feel like that isn’t fair to people who genuinely need a transplant and not one for a fetish.

But how can I stay opt in without donating things I really don’t want donating.

However, it does say they will need permission from next of kin so surely, that should provide me with some protection?

If you opt in you can choose to donate certain organs only. There is an ‘all’ or something option on the link I posted. You basically tick the ones you want to donate. Make sure your family are aware of your wishes. Hopefully this sci-fi nightmare won’t be realised in our lifetime but if it is, tell your loved ones so that they know you do not want your reproductive organs donated. Make sure they know.

Sorry that should be ‘all’ or ‘some’ option. My phone autocorrected to something.

I did select some, and reproductive organs aren’t on there at all

@Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel

Who cares? You'll be dead.

Would you be happy with a pedophile/murderer/rapist having bits of your body?

No? Well other people have standards of who they'd like their bits going to and who not.

I care. I’m all for organ donation in theory but I’m absolutely NOT for donating my reproductive organs and allowing this emperor’s new clothes charade to go even further than it already has. No fucking way

This is how I feel.

I'll be dead. I literally have no use for any of my body then. I'm also not the judge of who lives and dies so if my heart might keep them alive,

Full disclosure though, during our IVF treatment we'd opted to have any 'left over' embryos donated to science. I was happy to donate them to an infertile couple but husband wasn't as keen on that option

My worry goes beyond losing our own agency. I'm worried that if this actually happens it will become open to abuse of process - mums, sisters etc being pressured by their trans relative to leave their uterus and ovaries. Vulnerable or terminally ill women being pressured. Woke celebrities 'pledging' their reproductive system.

I can really see it becoming like some awful posthumous surrogacy.

@Twizbe would you leave a set of knives to a murderer? Y'know, because you're dead and no longer need them?

If you are morally comfortable with a trans woman harvesting your reproductive system and using it to grow a baby without regard to the medical and moral consequences, fine.

If it is just a case of 'I'll be dead so i don't care about the consequences of my actions' then maybe you should think more carefully about the kind of world you want your children (or other people's if you do not have children) to grow up in.

SandysMam, while I hope they don't become available too quickly, mine are readily available to anyone who can use them and, if somehow not useable, offered up for research.

I did select some, and reproductive organs aren’t on there at all

Soubriquet, in the link Wolfgirrl provided, it mentioned that explicit permission is required for any use of reproductive tissue. In other words, if you haven't specifically agreed to the use of those tissues, they cannot be used.

@gronky not quite. Your next of kin, as I understand it, can override your decision not to donate your reproductive system.

[quote Wolfgirrl]@Twizbe would you leave a set of knives to a murderer? Y'know, because you're dead and no longer need them?

If you are morally comfortable with a trans woman harvesting your reproductive system and using it to grow a baby without regard to the medical and moral consequences, fine.

If it is just a case of 'I'll be dead so i don't care about the consequences of my actions' then maybe you should think more carefully about the kind of world you want your children (or other people's if you do not have children) to grow up in.[/quote]
I feel you're going on a massive leap. The medical science does not yet exists to transplant my womb or eggs into a biological male and then get it to work.

During my lifetime I can state my wishes (take what you like to either give to science or to save someone else) once I'm dead though, I can't control what happens to my body nor am I going to be aware what happens. 50 years after I die the ants could take over and decide to use what's left of me to feed their ant babies - I can write in my will that I'd rather not be ant baby food but I can't really stop it.

Sorry, Wolfgirrl, I believe that is correct too, as it was under opt-in.

If I remember rightly from our IVF journey any eggs needed my permission to be used and that had to be renewed every so often. Embryos needed both our permissions to be used and also needed to be renewed regularly and there was a special post-mortem clause too

If I died and my womb could be used to carry a baby in a person that would otherwise not be able to carry a child, be them born Male or Female, I would be happy to oblige

Would you be happy with a pedophile/murderer/rapist having bits of your body?

AFAIK, there's no way of specifying that whoever gets your kidneys (for example) must be a good person.

I feel you're going on a massive leap. The medical science does not yet exists to transplant my womb or eggs into a biological male and then get it to work.

Is it though? We now have the science to induce artificial breastfeeding in trans women. Even if it was, why wait for it to become a reality before fighting it?

50 years after I die the ants could take over and decide to use what's left of me to feed their ant babies - I can write in my will that I'd rather not be ant baby food but I can't really stop it.

Well no because that's nature, it would be like saying you don't want your body to decompose. It is a natural outcome. Having somebody harvest your reproductive system to create a Frankenstein surrogacy is within your power to change.

If I died and my womb could be used to carry a baby in a person that would otherwise not be able to carry a child, be them born Male or Female, I would be happy to oblige

Well that's you. You would only be able to sincerely hope you are not participating in the creation of a child that would have serious health and social implications as a result being carried in a body not designed for it.

That’s my worry

That an innocent baby will be exposed to various drugs to stop the carriers body from rejecting it.

We as women are told we can’t take this drug, or that drug whilst pregnant.

So why should a baby now be exposed to all these other drugs to satisfy their wants.

At the end of the day, the baby must come first

Let's say this proposal does become a reality, where would it lead to, not just with trans women but cis men?

At best I can see a huge safeguarding risk with regards to vulnerable and terminally ill women, as well as having to 'watch and wait' babies as they grow up for adverse health implications of having been born to a man.

At worst, women simply become battery hens, used for uterus and egg donation and become devalued in society as men would be able to carry babies and therefore assert themselves in healthcare, maternity rights etc.

At worst, women simply become battery hens, used for uterus and egg donation and become devalued in society as men would be able to carry babies and therefore assert themselves in healthcare, maternity rights etc.

It seems to me that, if we were able to manipulate the biochemistry of a male body to safely carry a child, it's quite likely that we'd also be able to generate gametes at will. It's well outside my primary scientific field but I personally believe we'll arrive at artificial wombs long before male pregnancies are possible.

I must confess that I'm probably biased by having never had children (and am past the point where I could) but I don't feel that a significant personal value to society was my ability to bear them.

I don't feel that a significant personal value to society was my ability to bear them.

Well that's great but your position as a woman comes from your potential to bear them. It is this potential that makes us vulnerable and why we have been afforded the rights that we have.

Without that potential, we lose our rights and merely become a slightly weaker class of people.

Personally, I feel the argument that women should be treated equally because we're all human beings is more robust but that's my opinion. I think I've felt resistance to that notion because the idea that you have value because of something you can do feels like an imposition to do it (as well as a failing if you don't). Sorry if I'm derailing.