Rethink call on organ donor moveFriday, 31 October 2008
A Scottish nurse who overruled her dying husband's organ donation wishes has said the government should think twice before changing the law.
A UK-wide taskforce has been debating whether to have an opt-out system - where everyone is a potential donor unless they state their wish not to be.
Sally Molineux overruled her husband when she found out the distress he might suffer as he died.
Others want the law changed to presumed consent to stimulate debate.
In the past, both the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon have indicated they were in favour of an "opt out" system, which is currently being considered by UK transplant authorities.
If those organ donors were faced with what I had to face would they want to proceed?
But Mrs Molineux, from Fort William, wants to highlight the dangers of such a policy.
When her husband Shaun contracted cancer they both agreed he should become a complete harvest organ donor.
When Shaun slipped into a coma doctors told her that in order to be a complete harvest he would have to become a dead heart donor because his brain stem was not dead.
Doctors explained what would have been involved.
Presumed consent
Mrs Moilneux said: "What they would have to do was remove the intubation tube and leave Shaun to die for as long as it would take for him to die.
"And it was important for me to be aware that this could be potentially very unpleasant. Shaun could actually fight to breathe.
"So potentially I could have witnessed Shaun fighting to breathe and him being aware that he couldn't breathe which would have been horrendous for him.
"If those organ donors were faced with what I had to face would they want to proceed?"
She overturned his wishes, and allowed only his heart valves and corneas to be taken, after he had died a natural death.
Lauren McDiarmid, who's son David died three days after being diagnosed with bleeding on the brain, has a different view on the issue.
She was asked if David's organs might be donated: "If you make a decision for someone else, in the back of your mind you wonder if that's what they would have chosen.
"I'm choosing it but you're making a decision for someone else, where they should make that decision for themselves."
She believes the government should change the law in favour of "presumed consent".
"If everybody spoke about it and everybody knew what everybody's feelings on the matter were, it would be much easier, and obviously if it was presumed consent then you would have discussed it and you would have known exactly what his feelings were."
The government's task force to decide the future policy on organ donation is expected to report soon.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7701364.stm
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