Dialysis man backs change to donor rule

[okarol]

Dialysis man backs change to donor rule

Jan 14 2008 by Greg Tindle, South Wales Echo

A SOUTH Wales kidney patient who has been waiting years for a transplant today backed new Government proposals to introduce “presumed consent” for organ donation in the UK.

Former UK surfing champion, Mark Schofield, who has waited four years for a second kidney transplant, said the law would save lives and stop people dying needlessly.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has signalled support for the removal of organs from dead patients without their consent unless people opted out of the donor register or family members objected.

Edwina Hart, the Welsh Health Minister has already indicated support for a change in the law and called for a major public debate on the controversial issue.

Mr Schofield, 44, of West Park Drive, Porthcawl, was forced back onto dialysis after an initial live transplant from his mum failed five years ago.

Last year the father-of-two flew to the Philippines in a desperate bid to buy a kidney but his mission failed when no match could be found.

He said: “I’m in favour of presumed consent. It will save lives and stop the needless death of those waiting for a transplant. Those against the idea still have the choice to opt out if they don’t like it but these proposals will help to raise the debate – although I think it will take some time before it becomes law.”

UK Transplant say that at the end of March 2007, 7,234 patients were listed as actively waiting for a transplant.

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We support a system of presumed consent because it would maximise the number of organs available and save lives.

“However, such a system will require public support and trust if it is to be successful, and there must be safeguards to ensure that no organs are taken from people who would have objected.”

Joyce Robins, of the Patient Concern watchdog, said: “We are totally opposed to this. They call it presumed consent, but it is no consent at all.”

greg.tindle@mediawales.co.uk

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/2008/01/14/dialysis-man-backs-change-to-donor-rule-91466-20347625/

[okarol]

Transplant tourist has kidney op

Apr 29 2008 by Gerry Holt, South Wales Echo

A FATHER-OF-TWO who travelled to the Philippines to try to buy a kidney to save his life has now had a transplant on the NHS in South Wales.

Kidney patient Mark Schofield, 44, was so desperate for a transplant after being on the waiting list for four and a half years, he flew 7,000 miles to buy a kidney from a live donor.

His “transplant tourist” trip in June 2007 sparked criticism but laid bare the horrific lengths some patients were forced to go to as a result of the donor shortage in the UK.

Ultimately, his trip was unsuccessful and he was placed back on the list.

Now, after more than five years of waiting, the dad-of-two, from Porthcawl, has had a kidney transplant at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales.

Today, he said he hoped others wouldn’t have to go through the “horrendous” experience of trying to buy a kidney – and urged more people in South Wales to become donors.

Businessman Mark, who is father to George, 16, and Jessica, 14, had been on dialysis every night for up to three hours since December 19, 2003.

“I would just wait and pray for the phone call that would mean I could live my life,” said Mark, whose mother Jean donated a kidney for his first transplant which lasted 13 years.

Keen surfer Mark, who is married to Jayne, 41, was so desperate for a transplant that he decided to go to the Philippines where the operation costs £40,000.

“It was horrendous but what do you do?

“It’s very difficult to understand if you’re not in a life-threatening position but I think most people would do the same.”

When Mark was told doctors in Wales had found a match he was in hospital by noon, and 12 hours later he had a new kidney.

“I do feel better now but it’s still on my mind all the time,” he said.

“When I can go back in the sea and do some surfing I’ll finally feel like I’m on the straight and narrow.”

Mark must wait three to six months to be given the all-clear, but could still need another transplant in future.

However, he believes talk of presumed consent in Wales means he, and others, could be spared from resorting to becoming “transplant tourists”.

“The more we can keep this at the forefront of people’s minds the better,” he said.

“I don’t like looking back at that part of my life (in the Philippines) and it would be nice to step away from it but I know a lot of people who are still in that state who don’t fight or talk as much as I do.

“I’m not on a moral crusade but if I thought that my story would help one person then I would be delighted.”

Sixteen people died last year in Wales while on a waiting list for an organ transplant.

gerry.holt@mediawales.co.uk

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/04/29/transplant-tourist-has-kidney-op-91466-20835502/

[stauffenberg]

Generally, society is so idiotically arranged that more than half of all human misery arises just from the foolish institutions we invent to govern ourselves.  The whole notion that we would have to be extremely careful not to violate someone's posthumous wish not to donate an organ before we could institute a presumed consent law is one of the more unfortunate idiocies, since it will kill many people waiting for a transplant.  A person's whimsical fancy to feed a vital organ in his corpse after death to worms in the cemetery, even if he has to murder a living human being waiting for that same organ on the transplant list to do so, is not a 'right' but just selfishness extended to the point of lunacy.

[monrein]

What really astonishes me is the reluctance of some countries to go to a presumed consent system even with an opt-out possibility for those with strong objections.  I don't understand why a family member ought to be allowed to override a person's wishes to donate their organs after death and it seems to me that if presumed consent were in effect the cultural norm might well change so that at funerals people might talk about how many parts of their loved one had gone on to radically change for the better the lives of others.  Hospitals would be more prepared to harvest organs than they are now when these organs often go to waste.
I would however like to see the possibility of opting out remain, if only because I think we would stand a better chance of actually getting a presumed consent law passed.

I do think it is totally stupid to keep burying a precious resource whose scarcity causes so much suffering and also costs society (which after all is us) so much money.

[stauffenberg]

I find it an interesting irony that as far as MONEY is concerned, the relatives have no right whatsoever to overrule the wishes of the deceased as to how he wants his estate divided up.  But as far as SAVING OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES is concerned, oh of course the relatives should have the right to override that.  You can smell the stench of inhumane capitalism a thousand miles away.