And here I thought forced organ donation was just a joke in a Monty Python movie. The Chief Medical Officer of Great Britain plans to call for compulsory organ donation, unless you actively opt-out first:
People should automatically have their organs removed for transplant after they die unless they opted out while alive, Britain's most senior doctor is expected to say tomorrow in his annual report.
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, is expected to call for a change in the law amid fears that people are dying needlessly due to a shortage of donors.
Latest figures show that more than 7,300 Britons are on the waiting list for a life-saving transplant, a rise of about 30 per cent in the past 10 years.
Britain operates a system where organs can be removed only from people who have joined the donor register or carried a donor card.
Under a new system of presumed consent, which is supported by the British Medical Association, everyone would be treated as an organ donor unless they explicitly opted-out of the scheme while alive.
Rather ghoulish, if you ask me. I can sympathize with the BMA's frustrations over the lack of organ donors, but the idea of the state saying "your remains belong to us" is pretty disturbing. While Britons can opt-out if they wish, it seems to me that it's a short distance from there to compulsory donation no matter what, if the government says there's a need.
LINKS: More at Blue Crab Boulevard.
Recent Comments