Organ Donation opt-out system : Good or Bad?

[Fresh]

no it couldn't. Drunks and drug abusers, along with fatties and general body abusers are bared from donor lists on the grounds of being unstable cretins who would waste their chance and deny someone clean a fresh start.

 

Awesome. lololololololololol

[Noodleman]

Perhaps its just me but I think if someone in my family died suddenly and the organs (which lets face it they dont need anymore) would go to helping save someones life, it would be a lot easier to cope with.

[Flaight]

In principle I think any donation, organ or not, is good. I have no complaints about that. It's just that there are many ways to achieve greater organ donations, and opt-out system is the medical profession's cop out. They can be so bogged down with scientific benefit and blind themselves on people's sentiments. Opt-out system is certainly the "easy way out", but it comes at the expense of horrific emotional turmoil for some. I don't think any of that is justice. Human rights for those needing organ donation is no greater than the human rights of those who don't want to give them away.

 

Seeing this thread, obviously this point is contended, but I can't help but feel that it's short sighted to resort to opt-out system to resolve organ shortage. There are much more impartial, peaceful way forward. Medical profession makes a lot of fuss about it, but politicians see the balance of argument. That's why it's not yet implemented and the debate will likely go on.

 

Those who are against organ donation must empathize with those who are suffering due to organ shortage. Likewise, those who support opt-out system must empathize with those who feel it is their right to keep organs, should they choose to do so (and not be trapped in the possibility of error).

[BlueStar]

Just seen stats on the news that 9 out of 10 people support organ donation but only 1 in 4 is a donor. Absolute no-brainer for me that it should be opt-out, if people can't be bothered to opt-out even though they don't want to donate, tough fucking shit, your fault or being lazy and bagsie your kidneys.

 

Actually a better way of doing it would make it opt out, but if you do decide to opt out and not donate you organs and the time comes when you need an organ donation yourself then you go right to the bottom of the waiting list with people who haven't opted out leap frogging you in the queue.

 

Human rights for those needing organ donation is no greater than the human rights of those who don't want to give them away.

 

Dead people have considerably fewer human rights than living people. People in an opt-out system have the human right to opt out. If they can't be arsed, like I say, tough titties.

[theguyfromspark]

I say lets make it much easier for people to obtain a donor card rather than enforce an opt out. Why not make it mandatory for many more forms to ask if you want to donate your organs. For example, when opening a bank account, voting, tv license, gas bills, etc. Surely the lack of donors is because of general laziness rather than people's desire to keep their organs after death?

[Platty]

I think it's a much better idea than what we currently have in place.

[Eddage]

I think it's a much better idea than what we currently have in place.

 

Agreed Plattymon, BlueStar has it spot on to be honest.

[Flaight]

Just seen stats on the news that 9 out of 10 people support organ donation but only 1 in 4 is a donor. Absolute no-brainer for me that it should be opt-out, if people can't be bothered to opt-out even though they don't want to donate, tough fucking shit, your fault or being lazy and bagsie your kidneys.

9 out of 10, that's higher than I recall. That's good though. If that high, then a simple procedure attached to existing opt-in system would do the job. No need to complain about shortage. It's heck of a lot easier than having to bring in a new system.

 

As I said, the biggest problem with opt-out is those who fall victim to it. It's not really to do with laziness - in case of laziness, I would agree. In any system where by default something is done forcefully, there will always be victims - either due to lack of political involvement or pure system failure (the latter more likely). That's why we can't do this on a whim. It's one of the reasons why we dropped death-penalty in this country because it's not a reversible process when things go wrong, alongside questions of principles.

 

And it WILL go wrong. NHS, baby's organs taken away in error, ANE, etc looking back the past few years the list of errors in the system are endless. Opt-out for any system is a time bomb. I can see that on the surface it's such a fantastic idea though - easy, cheap to implement and seemingly effective. So I can see your point of view too. But that's only the theory. In practice, there is below the surface, where there are much deeper issues of social dynamism.

 

Finally, the problem with the principle of "donation". Opt-out system is in the wrong spirit for any donation. You don't force people to give by default and have people opt-out. That's bizarre. That isn't donation at all.

Dead people have considerably fewer human rights than living people.

That's a belief, and I respect that, but I think even you know deep down that such point will likely be contended in the wider public because there are so many beliefs out there regarding life & death.

 

And if you want to make this a debate of principles such as human rights, then you also need to consider what I said above. Else you would just be picking information selectively to suit your need. Opt-out system, including medical profession who defend the idea, are mostly approaching this subject from practical point of view; they know a debate on principles is a dangerous direction to go for promoting opt-out.

[Rapture1984]

There's no way that system can be bad, if you don't want to donate, opt out, simple as that!

[Flaight]

Yeah I understand that mate. Even I understand the theory. All I was trying to put across was that there are practical issues when you run a big system and that is a big factor which is easy to overlook. At a small scale society though, usually the practice and theory don't differ that much. But our society is pretty big.