Is it Legal in your Country?

[Rose From OZ]

Hi All

I have been reading and have heard from people that in some country's once your born you are automatically put on a list to be an organ donor and if you wish not to be on this you then have to manually go in and take yourself off. The wait for a transplant in these country's are so much shorter than what it is in Australia and probably country's like America.

The waiting list in Australia is now averaging a 7 year wait (this is just for kidneys.. not sure what it is for other organs)  if this was to be made legal here or say in the US I wonder how much shorter the list may be? I think it would be a very hard decision for a family to make in such a hard and tragic time like the loss of a loved one but having known that organs are really needed may make a difference. With people automatically being put on the list this at least leaves that window of opportunity open for more donations.  Saying this what is the wait for a kidney in the US? Is there much awareness about it?

Thanks for listening everyone I'm just a bit over the fact that there isn't much awareness out there and they are now saying that Kidney Disease in Australia is becoming an epidemic! Thanks look forward in hearing everyones thoughts!

[Sluff]

It is optional in the US but just the opposite, you have to put it on your state ID or Drivers license.

[KICKSTART]

No here in the UK you have to opt 'in' to be a donor , unless you fill in and carry a card stating you want to donate your organs then no - one will take them , (even so families can over-rule this , )even if it was the persons wish to be a donor.

[kitkatz]

In the United States you can opt to be an organ donor through your driver's license. There are horror stories told about emergency rooms that let people linger and die for organs, but that is pretty much BS put out by frightened people.

[brenda]

In Canada you have to sign a donor card or the back of your Alberta Health Care Card.

[Wattle]

I think what Rose is trying to say is.... That in Australia you can have your drivers license marked as a donor and be registered on the Organ donor register, but when the time comes things don't always go as you wish. In such a traumatic event of a love one dying ANY family member can over-ride your wish to donate. This happens all the time. I have a friend that works in the ICU of the major road trauma hospital here and sees this happen all the time. The deceased is registered as a donor but the family says no. The family is in shock and the last thing they want to hear is... will you donate the organs.

I believe this is where the problem is. If consent has already been given by the deceased by registering as a donor, it should stop there. The family should not have to make that decision. If the person hasn't registered then thats when they can ask the families permission.

It is a hard situation all round, for the families involved as well as the medical staff.

[AlasdairUK]

There was talk of a soft opt out donor system in the UK, but it never went through the House of Commons.

 

No here in the UK you have to opt 'in' to be a donor , unless you fill in and carry a card stating you want to donate your organs then no - one will take them , (even so families can over-rule this , )even if it was the persons wish to be a donor.

They changed the law in September last year as far as I know that if you had a donor card, your family could no longer over ride your decision as a donor and stop your organs being used if you had given consent.

[Rose From OZ]

Thanks Wattle I don't think I made much sense in my post. I have spoken to my Specialist about this problem and he agrees its pretty bad. I don't blame families for saying No at the time they are in so much pain it would be a very hard decision,but when your on the other side of the table then you see it from a different view.

I was told by my doctor to start a petition and send it to Parliament he said it worked in Spain and other country's so why not here or anywhere else. Not sure how many people would sign it thought... 

[stauffenberg]

Austria, Belgium, Spain, and a few other countries use the 'reverse onus' organ donor system, which assumes that every person who dies consents to donate all his organs unless he has registered with the government an official declaration that he refuses his permission for this.  The result of these policies is that, in such countries, the wait for a a kidney is seldom longer than one year.

I find it interesting that while every country in the world permits the government to seize private property by 'eminent domain' if it is needed for some public works project or road, it cannot seize the soon to be wasted organs of a corpose to save a human life!  Similarly, the state can seize a living person under a military draft and force him to risk serious injury or death fighting a war that may well be pointless or imperalistic, but it cannot seize the organs of a dead body to use for saving a human life.

Also, if someone makes an ordinary will disposing of his estate, his friends and relatives can try to get a court to change the will by lengthy and elaborte legal proceedings, usually costing tens of thousands of dollars, in an extremely difficult process.  But if that same person makes a will donating his organs for transplant, all the relatives have to do is snap their fingers and several needy patient on the organ transplant waiting list will die so that they can feed the organs to the worms.

The utterly depraved irrationality of governments, especially when it comes to treatment of people in dire medical need, exceeds belief.

[Sara]

Wow, stauff.  I actually agree with this post of yours.