So, today, the state will deem us as organ donors by default.
New law that comes into effect TODAY means every adult is now an organ donor… unless they opt out
I’ve discussed this at length over the years – and got into lengthy arguments with those in favour of the scheme, but I stand by my principles – if you do not specifically ask for something that does not belong to you, you are committing theft. The state should never have the right to assume that our bodies are there for the taking to be harvested without specific permission from the owner – the person themselves when alive, their next of kin when dead.
I object in principle to this. Donation is just that: Donation, a gift given freely by those who have to those who do not. Taking by presumption is not donation, it is sequestration and as such is morally repugnant. So morally repugnant that as someone who was perfectly willing to donate under the old system, I have opted out under the new one. I will not have the state presuming that my body may be harvested at will. If they want to speak to my next of kin, should I die in the right circumstances, then that’s fine. But I will not consent to this new law. Our bodies do not belong to the state and the state may not assume that I am prepared to give. Given its behaviour, I am now unwilling to give and have told them so.
To opt out:
While what you say may well be true, the problem here is not one of practical reality, but principle.
I am a voluntary organ donor because I CHOOSE to be and as it stands right now, I’m seriously considering reversing my decision of nearly 30 years (still have a little dog eared card in my wallet) and telling the NHS to remove me from the register.
The NHS, and by extension the government don’t OWN me and I am incensed at the implication that they do.
Yup. Precisely. Presumed consent is no consent at all. Pragmatism should never trump principle. The very same people are complaining about lack of consent elsewhere, yet because “saving lives” that principle is abandoned on the altar of convenience. Well, no. It is either right that we have consent or it is not. You don’t get to pick and choose.
Indeed. I’ve given enough blood to paint the forth bridge and I’m on the bone marrow register. Happy to do so as I chose to.
Like you I carried an organ donor card but have just logged on and opted out. If they can do it for organs they can do it for anything. Why can’t people see that?
I am not my friends and relatives. Indeed I despise the uttermost depths of my soul my supposedly “nearest and dearest” (pair of older brothers) and the fact that they would have any right to presume my consent is loathsome in the extreme, although some government appointed bureaucrat might beat that loathsomeness by a whisker.
No doubt “presumed consent” or “Precons” is in Winston Smith’s copy of the Newspeak dictionary, but it ain’t in mine and with good reason.
This is nothing but Marxism.
A few years ago, governments – ours included – and the glorious EU were busy passing laws prohibiting opt-out schemes because they are unethical. Yet now, because it is convenient to them, it’s suddenly become OK. Well, no, if it is unethical in principle, it is unethical in all cases and in one as important as this, even more so.
I agree that’s the situation at the moment. But how long until will it be until ‘the desperate need for transplant organs’ reverses that, and your consent (even presumed) overrules next of kin’s wishes?
We all have all seen such government ‘mission creep’.
I was ambivalent about it before, but I’ve now opted out, just because I don’t like the way they ‘assume’ consent.
I have done exactly the same. It is disgusting that the state should presume ownership of our bodies.
Thanks for posting a llink to the opt out page. My p**s is already boiling due to my favourite tobacco being banned from today. There is nothing like being not being able to have a decent smoke to make me extremely grumpy. These people could not run a piss up a brewery and they expect me to give them the power of life or death. Sorry, aint going to happen.
Just ripped up my dog-eared Donor Card, clicked on the link and opted out.
I am in the process of re-writing my will, this will now feature instructions to my Executor to ensure that my non-donor wishes are respected. There will be a significant financial loss to the Executor if there is any deviation from this instruction.
If enough people opt out, they might just get the message that this idea is immoral. They have no right to presume anything. The only ethical system is opt-in.
I’m not remotely hopeful, though.
Since they have no morals and/or principles in the first place, then that is a VERY weak reed to lean on.
Instead, expect a massive publicity campaign featuring photogenic big eyed little girls (non British,of course) with tubes up their noses and dressed in hospital gowns accompanied by emotional appeals that her life is dangling by rotting dental floss over a dreadful pit and she will die, DIE!!! I tell you, because of all these selfish people that won’t agree to donate organs. You only have to look at the mass hysteria over “selfish” people wanting to live their lives normally, got for a walk in the country by themselves or only with their dog and the “prosecute them to the maximum extent of the law” howls from the Karens. This will be encouraged and reported in the press and on the news channels to publicly shame those that do not want to join in and the Government will this time bow to “populist” pressure and introduce the necessary legislation.
No, it is GUARANTEED that it will be a compulsory thing and the only question is how quickly will it occur.
Absolutely and the opt-in system has been working well for decades. If uptake of an opt-in approach wasn’t providing sufficient donor organs then a greater publicity and incentives should have been put in place. Like an exemption from death taxes (inheritence tax) if you consent to being an organ donor…because what has the greater value? Taxes or lives?
No, neither am I. Presumed consent is no consent at all. It is exactly the sort of nasty, ill considered approach that could well lead to a fall in organ donation.
My wife’s funeral came in at £6k and I opted for as simple as possible. If the state offered to pick up the funeral costs, that would be a fair exchange. But they don’t want to pay, they want to take.
As Tim Wortsall repeatedly points out, Iran doesn’t have an organ donor shortage. Why is that I wonder?
Neither does China have an organ donor shortage.
I don’t believe that they pay, though. Last I heard, they charged the donor’s family for the bullet…
Thanks for link. Former Donor Card carrier now opted out as no longer a Donation
It’s same as Gift-Aid: I donate to charity I support, you are then compelled to “donate” too if I tick Gift-Aid box
I’ll just leave this here:
https://www.lexal.net/scifi/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/silverberg3/silverberg31.html
The background colours are distracting but “zoom” the page (CTRL and Scroll) and this will enlarge the text and push the background design off the RHS of the screen.
If you think that is an unlikely scenario, I would remind you about abortion (when introduced it was only for exceptional cases and required two doctors signatures but is now a form of contraception) and euthanasia in The Netherlands where once the patient becomes too much of a burden on the health system, the doctors pressurise relatives to agree to the patient being murdered.
Mission creep is not only possible but a 100% certainty and the only question is how rapidly this will occur. And of course, the tired excuse of “a computer error removed your name from the opted out list” will be used along with the tried, tested and similarly tired excuse “lessons have been learned”.
My belief is that the DNA samples the Police enthusiastically collect “for crime solving purposes” are nothing of the sort. Once the medical profession can swap organs as easily as a car mechanic can swap out a defective engine and replace with a serviceable one from another “donor” just think how useful a database of tissue matched records would be to keep a Stalin, Hitler, Mao or a Korean Kim alive indefinitely. You will see the death penalty reintroduced so quickly the edges of the paper will be singed with the heat generated by its velocity.
Yes, I’ve read that one. There is another one I recall reading many years back about living donors being kept alive as donor crops.
I’m reminded here of the scene from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life – The live transplant scene.
or this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Patchwork-Girl-Larry-Niven-ebook/dp/B07G4H2Y1X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+patchwork+girl&link_code=qs&qid=1590100896&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-2
This happened in Wales years ago. I opted out immediately even though I really don’t care what happens once I am dead.
The issue, apart from the state ownership of my body, is that dead bodies are useless for organ donation. You have to be alive.
I don’t trust any individual in a position of power not to harvest my organs to order. Money talks.
Thank you for the link, now opted out and will have my sons do the same.
The state just destroyed millions of jobs and livelihoods in the last 2 months and then pass this law regardless. It just goes to show that they know they can do this without consequences because the masses have been dumbed down to such a degree, and as previous commenters say, it won’t be long before the opt out option will either be removed or ignored.