thousands of people die each year awaiting organs for transplant. This organ shortage would be better addressed if ....organs of the deceased were routinely used, excluding only those from people who explicitly refuse to be donors, in contrast to the current system that requires donors to actively enlist.
From The Ethicist, New York Times
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4 comments:
Offering payment to the family, or even to the donor before death, would also go a long way.
Anonymous,
yes, your solution would help the shortage somewhat. But it has some problems. Who is supposed to pay the family/donor??
I think the government lets the organ shortage go on because any increase in transplant organs would be very expensive. A major transplant (liver, lung, heart) costs several hundred thousand dollars, often paid for with state and federal funds.
I agree with the statement completely. Organ donation should be a default process at the time of death unless an explicit statement to the contrary has been issued. Families should not be paid for the organs of their dead relatives. If the deceased person does not object to their organs being donated, the family should have no input on the matter. It is not their decision to make.
I only hope the legislators in the UK open their eyes to this sometime in the near future.
Life in the NHS:
www.gettingcaned.blogspot.com
In order to sustain the lives of Americans, so that we can continue to impose the American will on the rest of the world, maybe our administration could begin an icing program for all of the organs, or what's left of them, from all of the innocent Iraqis who are caught in the line of fire and send them over.
Of course Baptists and other Hypo-Christians would have priority... at least in our state!
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