Opposing view on end-of-life choices: Adopt 'presumed consent'

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Opposing view on end-of-life choices: Adopt 'presumed consent'
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By Rocco F. Andriola
There is a severe organ donation crisis in New York. Ten thousand New Yorkers are on the waiting list for organs in literally a "life-and-death" waiting game. Hundreds die each year waiting for an organ that never comes.

OUR VIEW: States overlook an easy way to raise organ donation rates

Unfortunately, the rate of people signing up for New York's Organ and Tissue Registry last year was only 11%, which puts the state in last place for signup rates. In short, New Yorkers are needlessly dying, while others undergo dialysis for five years to seven years awaiting a kidney transplant.

The current failed New York system requires individuals to sign up on a registry to become a donor. There is a vastly superior alternative: New York should adopt a "presumed consent" model for organ donation, a system successfully used in 24 nations, including Israel, Spain, Belgium and Austria. The largest transplant programs in New York (NY-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and NYU) all support making this change.

"Presumed consent" is a system where the presumption is that individuals want to donate organs after their death. This is consistent with national surveys showing that more than 90% of Americans support organ donation. Objections to a "presumption" are far outweighed by this: It is morally and ethically repugnant to allow so many to die each year when their deaths are avoidable.

For those with personal reasons for not wanting to donate, their wishes would be respected by allowing them to "opt out" for any or no reason, without any questions. The New York Organ Donor Network recognized the importance of this protection when it recently approved "presumed consent" in principle, provided that safeguards exist for those choosing to exclude themselves.

Ironically, the passage of live-saving legislation requiring seat belts, "hands-free" driving, child safety seats, motorcycle helmets and banning smoking in public places was not accompanied by the 90%-plus levels of support seen for organ donation. Furthermore, no citizen was allowed to "opt out" of such laws. In contrast, presumed consent provides the perfect "win-win" scenario: We can save hundreds of lives by eliminating the waiting list, while fully respecting anyone's decision not to donate.

Rocco F. Andriola is a co-founder of Save Lives Now New Yorkand a former chairman of the New York Organ Donor Network.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2010-05-19-editorial19_ST1_N.htm?csp=34