Here’s a morbid question for you — when you die, do you care what happens to your organs? I don’t, and surveys tend to suggest many others are quite the same. Yet most people, including myself, also aren’t organ donors. That’s because policy in most countries dictates that for people to be donors, they must sign on to a national register. The problem is that most people simply can’t be bothered — while they’re happy to be donors, it’s not an issue that ranks as enough of a priority for them to take the time to opt-in to the organ donation system. The consequence of this is long waiting lists for those seeking transplants because of low organ availability.
Electorally challenged British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has launched what he hopes will be a “serious debate” on the issue of organ donation, and has proposed to change his country’s system to one of ‘presumed consent’ — that, unless a person specifically opts-out or family members oppose the use of their organs, their organs will be made available for medical use. As CNN reports:
The proposals are closely modeled on the donor system in Spain where Brown said around 35 people per million had their organs used by hospitals. This compares with 13 donors per million in Britain and 25 per million in America, he added.
Although in Spain consent is presumed by law, families are still asked to give their permission for the donation to go ahead.
The system is managed by dedicated transplant co-ordinators who talk to grieving relatives, often within a few hours of death, to seek their consent.
Yet, as Brown acknowledges, the plan is likely to prove controversial in some quarters of the community. Many don’t like the idea of having their organs harvested after they die. Others believe that to presume a person would wish to donate their organs without any express consent from them is immoral.
The question should simply be this — do policymakers expect that more people will want to keep their organs when they die than won’t? Given the choice between saving more lives by retaining more organs for transplants, and supposedly respecting the wishes of those who have died but haven’t indicated a preference at all, it seems there would be a greater social benefit to saving lives. An opt-out system will respect the rights of those who, for whatever reason, do not wish to donate their organs, and a system that mandates consent from families will help reflect a person’s wishes either way. Irrespective of what policy the UK eventually adopts, it should be a debate that we engage in here.