Mark My Words: Voluntary Organ Donation. Not if Welsh Get Their Way

Wales are about to become the first country in the UK where people will be presumed to have consented for their organs to be donated unless they opt out.

The current system, which operates across the UK, relies on people signing up to a voluntary scheme and carrying a donor card. But ministers in Cardiff Bay, keen to drive up low transplant rates, say the new scheme will save countless lives. How long before they try and adopt it throughout the UK, other EU countries have done it ?

The new consent law means people would have to choose not to donate their organs and would apply to over-18s who die in Wales if they have lived in the country for more than 12 months. Organs made available under the system would be the same as the "opt-in" method - including kidneys, heart, liver, lungs and pancreas.

State vultures circling overhead on your death bed?

This is the ultimate in the belief that the State owns everything, including your body and organs, to do with whatever it sees fit to.

Not only that but where does it stop? Forced blood donation perhaps? After all the ends justify the means doesn’t it ? How about we assume you wish to give 10% of your earning to charity unless you opt out or we assume you give your consent for anyone to access your bank account unless you opt out.

Well I’m afraid I don’t accept that I belong to the State, that I am its property to do with as it will. I do not accept that assertion either in life or death. The proper role of the State is to ask for permission to use my body after death - not to presume that I am just so much dead meat that can be recycled.

There is rather a hefty change in the state of affairs if we move from an ‘opt-in’ to an ‘opt-out’ system. ‘Opt-in’ presumes that I am my own person; ‘Opt-out’ simply treats us as a commodity.

Encourage not mandate

Personally I couldn’t care less what happens to my rotting corpse once I’ve gone, they can harvest whatever they think is of use then dump the carcass in the Mersey as far as I’m concerned. My body is just the container that my soul lives in, when I die that’s gone, the container it came in can be disposed of as economically as possible.

As you can see, I am hugely in favour of organ transplantation and carry a donor card. I’ve given permission for anything in my body that is useful to someone else to be used. If one of my organs could give a worthwhile life to someone else that is a positive benefit at the end of my life. It is the last selfless acts I will ever make.

I just don't think it's the job of some political parasite to force me into the decision. I much prefer the positive affirmation of saying, "Yes, I want to be a donor." to relying on someone, in a rushed situation, being honest about any objection to my organs being transplanted. I also feel my family shouldn’t be forced to make the decision, it’s my body, they can take whatever they need out of it, my decision.

It’s Selfish not to donate !

Maybe so but it is not for the State; religious leaders; doctors; a supposed organ transplant recipient or anyone else for that matter to criticise the choices other people may or may not make about their own bodies after death.

It’s a fact that people do object to their parts being used for transplant and it does make me wonder what they themselves expect from the NHS. They seem to want doctors and surgeons to help them, and save their lives, yet feel under no obligation to save others. It’s something very strange about our society. However, It’s still their choice and in a free society that’s how it should be.

Corneas sold to the highest bidder ?

As an aside, if anybody’s organs are up for grabs when don’t opt out, how do we know these organs won’t be removed and then sold to the highest bidder abroad. What's to stop them and how would you know if they used your organs for experimentation? Remember the situation some years ago where children's body parts had been removed and retained without prior consent?

The Welsh Assembly have already admitted that organs will not necessarily be used in Wales. It maybe that people waiting transplants on the NHS may still not get them.

What about people who opt-out not being entitled to a transplant if they need one ? It could happen.

Go get your Donor Card now ! – Before the State take your kidney

As I’ve said, I'm perfectly happy for my organs to be used after my death. But I would rather make that decision myself than the State deciding what should happen. The decision to donate should be just that - a positive one from me, rather than a negative one not to donate.

Whether you like it or not, people should be free to make their own decisions about themselves, not be forced to act by a State which would presume to make a choice for them.