17 July 2007

Anyone For Presumed Consent?

England's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, wants a system of "presumed consent" to be introduced in England to tackle organ shortages.

Do we really want to give the State presumed ownership of our body parts? Surely a better way to close the gap between the 70-90% who say they would be willing to donate their organs after death and the 20-25% who carry a donorcard or are on the NHS Organ Donor Register, and thereby combat the "transplant crisis," would be to make it easier to register? How about, for example, including a consent form as an integral part of every driving licence and passport application? Or making the forms available at every supermarket checkout, instead of all those useless offers of credit?

In the meantime, if you would be willing to give your consent but haven't done so, you can do so online at UK Transplant.

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