More on Organ Donation

I see that Aunty has picked up on the thoroughly illiberal Liam Donaldson’s proposal to steal the bodies of the dead.

Everyone should be seen as a potential organ donor on their death unless they expressly request not to be, England’s chief medical officer says.

Sir Liam Donaldson calls for a system of “presumed consent” to be introduced in England to tackle chronic shortages of organs.

Well, I’ve already commented on that one. However, an interesting reminder of what the erstwhile health secretary had to say on the matter when it came before parliament in 2004:

Both the then Health Secretary John Reid and Health Minister Rosie Winterton declared it was not up to Parliament to make decisions about what became of people’s bodies when they died.

Well, blow me down, Reid talking sense. I’ll make the most of that one. I guess even stopped clocks get to be right twice a day. Donaldson isn’t letting up, though:

But Sir Liam said that efforts to persuade more people to either carry donor cards or sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register had failed.

Well, that’s too bad.

Only 20% of the population – or 13 million – are on the register, despite the fact that surveys showed that as many as 70% of people wanted to donate their organs after death.

I fit into this category. I have specifically declined to carry a card. If, in the event of my death, my organs are of any use, Mrs Longrider knows what to do. The medics will need to seek permission as is only right and proper. Be under no illusion, if Donaldson’s proposal gets the go-ahead, that arrangement will cease forthwith. I own my body, not the state and I flatly refuse them permission to pick it apart without asking first.

Perhaps most worrying is the straw poll on the BBC’s page that suggests over 63% of the Beeb’s viewers think that the state does own our bodies. I suppose that’s why New Labour keeps wining elections, the sheeple love a control freak; saves them having to think for themselves…