Presumed consent debate.

[angela515]

My transplant has nothing to do with not being able to donate. I can't donate b/c of my SLE(Lupus).

[Chris]

I was told I can not donate due to having a transplant and being on all the immunosupresants. I was told this by my transplant center and by the Gift of Hope during an Organ Donor Awareness booth.

[stauffenberg]

One perfectly fair and reasonable way to end the organ shortage forever would be to give everyone at age 18, the age of consent, two years to make an irrevocable will to donate all their organs for transplant, unless they could demonstrate bona fide membership in a religious group forbidding this.  Then, after age 20, no one could ever be put on a waiting list for any organ transplant unless they had signed the consent to donate their own organs.  Why should people be entitled to benefit from a program they are not also willing to contribute to?  Faced with this prospect, it would be in everyone's self-interest to donate, and people are, unfortunately, much more motivated by selfishness than by altruism, so there would suddenly be more organs available for transplant than would ever be needed.  Before age 20 the transplant allocation system would work as it does now.

[BigSky]

I was told I can not donate due to having a transplant and being on all the immunosupresants. I was told this by my transplant center and by the Gift of Hope during an Organ Donor Awareness booth.

They may have been talking about donating blood.

I have always been told most anyone can donate with few exceptions, HIV etc etc.  Even when I had my transplant I was told I could donate, the exceptions were plasma and blood due to the medication to suppress the immune system.  At time of death, as in all cases, they will determine if organs or suitable for donation or not.

[Chris]

I was told I can not donate due to having a transplant and being on all the immunosupresants. I was told this by my transplant center and by the Gift of Hope during an Organ Donor Awareness booth.

They may have been talking about donating blood.

I have always been told most anyone can donate with few exceptions, HIV etc etc.  Even when I had my transplant I was told I could donate, the exceptions were plasma and blood due to the medication to suppress the immune system.  At time of death, as in all cases, they will determine if organs or suitable for donation or not.

Nope, asked specifically about donating when I first got my transplant at my center. However their book says I can donate blood, but American Red Cross and a local blood bank said I can not donate. When I asked at the booth for the Gift of Hope, I was told I also could not donate my organs. So at this point I have no idea what the policy is, I'm just going by what I was told by what I would consider reliable sources. Somebody needs to get their act together out here if the rules have changed.

[thegrammalady]

As a humanist I know it is my duty to sign my donor card,

Which kinda brings up....

While the attention is about others signing their donor cards,  how many here have signed their donor card?

mine was signed years before my kidneys failed and my family knows better than to deny the donation. however since they are all wiling to donate a kidney to me that really isn't a concern.  i don't think families should be allowed to deny a persons choice to be an organ donor for any reason and everyone should be an organ donor unless they specifically opt out.  and as said before if they're just to lazy to opt out or forget to toughies!

[stauffenberg]

Given the damage to the entire body caused by major organ failure, extended periods of time on dialysis, and toxic immunosuppressive drugs, any organs harvested from a renal patient for transplant would have to count as second class, 'extended criteria' organs only.  There would also be a theoretically greater danger of subclinical infection and occult cancer in organs taken from a patient who had been receiving immunosuppression for any length of time.