"Think about all the lives you could save by volunteering your friends organs..."
A blog entry on the Journal of Medical Ethics has highlighted the fact that it is very easy to sign up other people to the Donor Register. You can sign up in many different places, but now it is possible online with just a name and date of birth, both easily accessible pieces of information.
"There is considerable debate about whether we ought to have an opt in or opt out system of organ donation – this appears to be a new option “an others opt you in system…” And there doesn’t seem to be any way to change your mind and opt out using the online system."
Organ donation does seem to continue to be a point of debate, especially the opt-in or opt-out system, however, this presents a whole new moral dilemma, can you save lives by signing up your friends?
Read full article here: http://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2012/04/23/give-the-gift-of-giving-donate-someone-elses-organ-or-how-the-current-online-system-for-organ-donation-allows-you-to-sign-up-others-as-long-as-you-know-a-few-details-about-them-oops/
Read full article here: http://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2012/04/23/give-the-gift-of-giving-donate-someone-elses-organ-or-how-the-current-online-system-for-organ-donation-allows-you-to-sign-up-others-as-long-as-you-know-a-few-details-about-them-oops/
Was actually discussing this on Twitter this morning (@LordFIMM) having recently changed doctors. Part of the signup process is to check all the required boxes - down to skin, corneas, the LOT. I was perfetly happy to select them all but I can understand that some may feel squeamish about signing up for this. Whilst I don't think that you should sign others up for organ donation, I do believe that it should be an opt-out task. By this, I mean that you should automatically be assumed to be choosing to donate, unless you opt out.
ReplyDeleteAgreeing with Ciaran, opt out would be far better and far more effective than opt in ever will be. Granted there will be the usual Daily Mail outcry every so often for the first few years, where someone has their organs donated automatically but it goes against personal wishes, etc... There will then follow a brief period of mass-exodus from the system after each story, but in the reasonably short term this will die down and organ donation will become the accepted norm.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want to do it, you'll opt out early, and everyone else who never thought about it will be saving lives.