Poll: Poll: Organ donation opt out

[Angilion]

You have a choice now, and choose to donate. You’ll still have a choice should this be implemented, but would choose differently.

Are you an organ donor for you or for the potential recipient? It sounds a lot like the former, which is fine, but it kind of misses the point about the purpose of organ donation.

I've been an organ donor for ~30 years now for the simple reason that I don't care what's done with my corpse when I'm dead. Because I'll be dead. I have a preference for something useful to be done with it so my wishes are, in order, use anything they can use for spare parts and then use the rest for whatever training or research it can be used for. But I don't care if it's fed to pigs, chucked in the sewers or given to necrophiliacs for a gangbang. Because I'll be dead. Not there any more. Not caring about anything. Just plain not anything.

A choice is about something you do. Something that is done to you isn't a choice. So right now the choice is to donate. The proposal is to take that choice away and replace it with a choice to not donate.

 

[Vonhelmet]

I think there is a concern that, Like a car, If one is badly damaged, the medics might conclude that you are worth more broken for spares than being repaired. and that they might go to rather less effort to save you if there are people actively waiting for organs that you are a good match for.

What sort of deranged paranoid world do you live in?

 

[The_Abyss]

I've been an organ donor for ~30 years now for the simple reason that I don't care what's done with my corpse when I'm dead. Because I'll be dead. I have a preference for something useful to be done with it so my wishes are, in order, use anything they can use for spare parts and then use the rest for whatever training or research it can be used for. But I don't care if it's fed to pigs, chucked in the sewers or given to necrophiliacs for a gangbang. Because I'll be dead. Not there any more. Not caring about anything. Just plain not anything.

A choice is about something you do. Something that is done to you isn't a choice. So right now the choice is to donate. The proposal is to take that choice away and replace it with a choice to not donate.

So it is all about you then, and not about what amazing things your body may do to help others when you expire. And even though you don't care what happens to it when you do die, you care enough to deny those things to others simply to express your choice without consideration of others.

I disagree with the end of your post. You clearly do care. But just about yourself, and explicitly not about others.

 

[Hyburnate]

I agree but I voted OUT as I can't due to health complications I would if I could

 

[Meridian]

So you're a donor to make yourself look, feel and sound good

No. It doesn't make me feel good now, and it certainly won't if they harvest the organs 'cos I plan to be very dead. I do it as a moral choice, in the same way that I donate platelets. Angilion sums it up perfectly - thank you mate.

 

[The_Abyss]

No. It doesn't make me feel good now, and it certainly won't if they harvest the organs 'cos I plan to be very dead. I do it as a moral choice, in the same way that I donate platelets. Angilion sums it up perfectly - thank you mate.

But, as per the question you posed where you were unsure of the answer, yes, to me, your decision does sound weird.

 

[Narj]

The self-righteousness in this thread annoys me somewhat.

If I didn't register then fine, I'd accept not being on a priority list. You reap what you sow and all that. My organs probably won't be great given my excesses in my earlier days to be honest.

The way forward is development towards transplants (human or otherwise) without a nuisance infested life of anti-rejection drugs afterwards IMO. I don't think there is a shortage of donors, more a shortage of matches.

 

[Orionaut]

I've been an organ donor for ~30 years now .

Pedant alert!

 

[v0n]

Organ donation is one of the most humane things you can ever do, but the idea that our bodies from get go belong to "authorities" for spare parts is not something I want to be a part of. I never thought something would put me off organ donation, but this definitely would.

 

[Andy90]

When this was introduced here in Wales, which was in 2015, I opted out. I disagreed with the fact that this was Wales only. In my opinion it should have gone Nationwide at that point. Ok some might criticise me for it, but that was my choice, perhaps a protest, perhaps a little pointless, but we're talking about my own body, no-one else's, so it is my damn decision. In any event it was a moot point, due to the fact that in the last 2 years I clearly haven't died suddenly, so no-one has lost out. No-one has been saved by my heart, kidneys or anything else.

When this system goes National, then I will opt back in.

Personally it doesn't bother me what they do with my organs/eyes etc., if I've died very very quickly - i.e. Road Traffic Collision or a Heart Attack (rules out the Heart but the other organs will probably be ok). It really doesn't matter, and having seen enough Post Mortems to last me a lifetime, what they do with your organs in any event makes you realise that someone might as well have some benefit from them rather than the Pathologist slicing them into tiny little bits like Hannibal Lecter (minus the fava beans and chianti).

 

[Explosivo]

As long as my eyes, anus or penis doesn't get used for a bushtucker trial, they can take anything they want if it saves someone who's sick and gives them a better life.

 

[LeMson]

It worries me who would get them, I wouldnt want someone like ian huntley getting my bits, dowt I can join anyway due to health and meds I take tho

 

[Vonhelmet]

No, it doesn't. They want to make a choice. The proposed change would give them only one choice - out. So they'd take that option since it's the only way they can have a choice.

They said it quite clearly at the end: "[..] this takes the decision away from me and gives it to parliament. That leaves me with a decision I can make: no."

I don't get why "choosing" has to involve choosing something other than a default position. Or why you have to actively "choose" in any given situation.

 

[Vonhelmet]

It worries me who would get them, I wouldnt want someone like ian huntley getting my bits, dowt I can join anyway due to health and meds I take tho

Do you really think someone like Ian Huntley would top a transplant list? Or are you talking about a situation in which he's literally the only person in the country in need of a given organ? Honestly, you people live in the most bizarre fantastical worlds.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

Some people are not medically eligible to become donors.

In what way?

 

[LeMson]

Do you really think someone like Ian Huntley would top a transplant list? Or are you talking about a situation in which he's literally the only person in the country in need of a given organ? Honestly, you people live in the most bizarre fantastical worlds.

It's theoretical for me, I couldnt give organs, I cannot give blood, just a thought that I wouldnt want someone like him getting my organs

 

[Fishbait]

When this was introduced here in Wales, which was in 2015, I opted out. I disagreed with the fact that this was Wales only. In my opinion it should have gone Nationwide at that point. Ok some might criticise me for it, but that was my choice, perhaps a protest, perhaps a little pointless, but we're talking about my own body, no-one else's, so it is my damn decision. In any event it was a moot point, due to the fact that in the last 2 years I clearly haven't died suddenly, so no-one has lost out. No-one has been saved by my heart, kidneys or anything else.

When this system goes National, then I will opt back in.

Personally it doesn't bother me what they do with my organs/eyes etc., if I've died very very quickly - i.e. Road Traffic Collision or a Heart Attack (rules out the Heart but the other organs will probably be ok). It really doesn't matter, and having seen enough Post Mortems to last me a lifetime, what they do with your organs in any event makes you realise that someone might as well have some benefit from them rather than the Pathologist slicing them into tiny little bits like Hannibal Lecter (minus the fava beans and chianti).

 

[Angilion]

So it is all about you then, and not about what amazing things your body may do to help others when you expire.

I just don't care to pretend that I'm super righteously wonderful because I've chosen to allow my corpse to be used for spares, training and research. I won't be using it, so I'm not actually doing anything. It's not a sacrifice on my part, other than a few minutes 30 years ago to register. It's clearly you who treating it as all about you. You're the one who's making a big production about how great you are for doing it, not me.

And even though you don't care what happens to it when you do die, you care enough to deny those things to others simply to express your choice without consideration of others.

Except that I don't. If you weren't completely wrong, you might have a point somewhere.

I disagree with the end of your post.

And you're wrong. But you do get a choice about that.

You clearly do care. But just about yourself, and explicitly not about others.

Maybe, but if so at least I'm less aggressive about it than you are.

 

[Angilion]

In what way?

Some medical conditions that might be transferred to the recipient. Maybe some other medical conditions, I don't know, but definitely anything that could possibly infect the recipient.

 

[Angilion]

The self-righteousness in this thread annoys me somewhat.

If I didn't register then fine, I'd accept not being on a priority list. You reap what you sow and all that. My organs probably won't be great given my excesses in my earlier days to be honest.

The way forward is development towards transplants (human or otherwise) without a nuisance infested life of anti-rejection drugs afterwards IMO.

That is the way forward. Transplants from someone else are far from a total cure. For example, by far the most common transplanted organ is a kidney (more than 2/3rds of all organ transplants in the UK). Success is measured in how many transplant recipients survive 5 years after the transplant and, as you mention, they have to take anti-rejection drugs for however long they live and those suppress your immune system (which is the point of them) which is a risk in itself and they can have severe side effects on top of that. http://www.cpmc.org/advanced/kidney/news/newsletter/kidneytransplant_medication_sideeffects.html

I don't think there is a shortage of donors, more a shortage of matches.

It's also a shortage of people dying in hospital with healthy working organs, which is required for a transplant. Organs become useless extremely quickly after they stop working. Even if someone dies a couple of minutes from hospital, it's a no go. You can store organs for a little while after they've been removed (usually just hours), but they have to be working when the organ harvesting starts. That doesn't mean the person has to be alive, in case anyone is worried about that. Medical equipment can keep organs working for a bit after the person's dead and a doctor has double-checked that the person is definitely dead.

Increasing the number of people killed in traffic accidents would increase the number of organ transplants more than removing choice in order to get some of the minority of eligible people who haven't already opted into the donor registry.