shuggy's blog
Strange. When Alder Hey hospital went for the 'default consent' option it was condemned by ministers as appalling, heartless, disgraceful. Now it seems to be the preferred option.
Maybe it's partly for the rather irrational reason why I've adopted a number of other positions in the past; you find the attitude and arguments made by those for the issue so deeply unpleasant that you feel the opposing case must have some merits.
That's exactly the same reason I took you off my blogroll. How strange.
And that's right Shuggy, my elevating the rights of the living above those of the dead makes my argument inhumane. Well done.
Golly!. What a response from Justin K. But what if you're a card carrying member of the Labour Party, a self declared member of the left since 1964 (I can remember helping canvas in the 1964 election in Tring) and you're not a libertarian?
The point is that the left should also distrust the state. Not because the state is bad, but because it's bureaucratic, and runs in the interests of its own. It takes colossal political effort to get the state to remember that its organs are there for the benefit of the people, not just for those that work there.
In the case of opt-outs for organ donation, I'm sure that desperate surgeons wouldn't be tempted to switch off the life support because their rich patient in dire need of a new liver/kidney/heart would die if the potential new donor continued to live.
But I wouldn't bet my life on it.
Anyway. It's my body. If it belongs to anyone after my death, it belongs to my relatives. Why should it belong to the State?
It's the distortion of the incentives for the doctors and administrators while the victim is still alive that worries me. You can bet that absence of evidence will be taken as evidence of absence. What, no tattoo saying "hands off my kidneys"? Have them out then. Not quite dead yet? Well he is now.
And that's right Shuggy, my elevating the rights of the living above those of the dead makes my argument inhumane. Well done.
No, if you'd bothered to read my post properly it was for another reason I said this. While I disagree with the argument for presumed consent, other people have managed to make a case for it without the misanthropy. I have no problem with them.
Re: “You can't assert ownership over your own corpse. Why? Because. You. Are. Dead.”
Nonsense. Your corpse effectively forms part of your estate. It is your property to dispose of as you will. That’s how people will their bodies to medical science.
That is the point. They willed their bodies. Medical science didn’t just assume it would be ok to take them.
No one can help but feel for those who are in need of a replacement for a failing organ It is an emotive issue and such a scheme would undoubtedly increase the supply of organs. There again so would re introducing the death penalty for murder and then harvesting the organs that become available as a result. That is a tried and tested method in China.
Just because it might solve the problem does not necessarily make it desirable, right or acceptable. Efforts to find other solutions have not really been pushed properly.
Patients’ groups have indicated they are "totally opposed" to the idea because it would take away patients' rights over their own bodies.
Personally it would make me just a little uncomfortable if I felt those who had charge of my medical care, when I was most vulnerable, were not just working for my best interest - but were also scouting for potential organs and might view me as a valuable resource in that respect.
God forbid they have targets, or we might well be in danger of seeing something similar to the sudden increase in young babies being taken into care when adoption targets were set for social services.
Don't worry Shuggy, as is so often the case nowadays I understand that these proposals apply to England ONLY.
Just another reason for England to end this abusive "Union" and regain her freedom and independence.
My body belongs to no-one else, so I will opt out, and then leave a letter to my family allowing them to use their discretion.
But we must be extremely wary of medical staff with a transplant target to meet. (Organs are not harvested from the dead, they are taken from the dying.) And how can we be sure that drugs such as morphine, and other pain relief, would not be reduced to prevent toxicity to organs like the liver? End-of-life palliative care is not done with harmless compounds.
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