Would you donate your organs.

[loulou]

Gordon Brown says he wants a national debate on whether to change the system of organ donation.

He believes thousands of lives would be saved if everyone was automatically placed on the donor register.

It would mean that, unless people opted out of the register or family members objected, hospitals would be allowed to use their organs for transplants.

They can have anything they want when I'm dead but not my eyes.

[MayRae]

If this idea goes through they will be able to take anything they want including your eyes loulou and no-one will be able to stop them.

I am all for transplants and organ donation, and I have carried a valid up-to-date donor card since I was 17, but I don't agree with this opt-out scheme.

There are too many ways for the wishes of the dead or their families to be overlooked, ignored or circumvented.

I am not in favour of this, but I really do wish they would transplant Gordon Brown OUT of Downing Street. To some where cold and secluded or even straightout desolate and deserted. Anywhere where he can't do any more harm than he has already done!

[oldspice]

I support organ donation but I don't agree with the opt-out idea. As far as Gordon Brown is concerned, we should give him more time. I don't think he has done any harm as such. Most of the things that have come to light pre-date his appointment and don't even involve him directly. I can't think of anyone else who is in a better position to run the government than him.

[goldencup]

Well I agree with the opt-out idea.  I've carried an organ donor card since I was 18 and I'm registered on the website.  I've seen the agony people can go through when waiting for a suitable donation to come up for their loved ones and this system would surely shorten the wait.  If people feel strongly that they don't want to donate, then presumably they'll be able to register that fact.  As long as the hospital check first of course....

[smurfboy]

I disagree with the opt-out idea - but I also disagree with the fact doctors have to get expressed consent from the family even if someone has carried a donor card. If you are registered to be an organ donor after your death, that should be your choice; your family shouldn't be able to override your original wishes. And it's because it's such a personal choice that I'm against the opt-out scheme.

[oldspice]

I agree with Smurfy. Both my children carry organ donor cards and have made clear their wish to donate their organs and I would not dream of going against their wishes if the unthinkabe happened. I also carry a donor card but I do not support the opt-out plan because i think it is open to abuse and a certain amount of corruption.

[MayRae]

I have always disagreed with the fact that even if the deceased carried a donor card his next of kin could override that wish and refuse donation.

That is absolutely wrong.

But this opt out idea is, in my opinion, just as wrong, but in completely different ways.

I suppose it is possible that I am biased against Gordon Brown. Because although it's not a popular view amongst the mass population..... I liked Tony Blair. I still do.

I do agree with oldspice on the fact that if not Brown then who? Unfortunately I can see that there is no-one else really.

Jeez, you are all being a bit sensitive over your body that you no longer will be using.

I am not religious but I think of my body simply as a vessel for my spirit/soul, call it what you will. I won't be needing it where I am going.

Opt out seems right to me.

I think I have a couple of old Hammonds up in the attic they can have just now in fact.

I can't give any more away though, coz I am still using it!

[MayRae]

What worries me, partly anyway, is that one day we may reach a point where the opt out scheme means that they no longer ensure that I have no further use for my body before they give bits of it to someone else.

That could happen with this system, which is the main reason I oppose the whole idea. 

[smurfboy]

Jeez, you are all being a bit sensitive over your body that you no longer will be using.

If that's how you personally feel then fine - but give people the choice of what they do with their own body. There's no right more important than the right to choose.

[Logger]

I'm not really bothered whether my dead body is buried, burned or has all it's innards removed but I think people have the absolute right to refuse to donate their organs.

 

To be fair, I haven't seen much being done over the past few decades to encourage folk to voluntarily carry donor cards.  Maybe an advertising campaign would be a good place to start?

I would agree in most other situations Smurfy.

It just puzzles me why people are so precious about something that will not be able to bother them when they are dead.

And I am reliably informed that you are a long time dead (hot line to old nick).

"It's mine, you cannot have it even if I no longer have any use for it."

[oldspice]

What worries me, partly anyway, is that one day we may reach a point where the opt out scheme means that they no longer ensure that I have no further use for my body before they give bits of it to someone else.

That could happen with this system, which is the main reason I oppose the whole idea. 

 

That's exactly how I feel. I also think it is a good argument against euthanasia. I can just see some poor terminally ill person, six months from death, being told the best course of action would be for them to die now, comfortably and in a controlled way rather than 'hang on' for the grim end, when really, the main objective is to save six months worth of drugs and treatment.

[goldencup]

And what's wrong with that?

[loulou]

they still not getting my eyes.