Do Not Donate

The government is on the verge of approving a change in the organ donation system. Instead of having to opt in as necessary at present, those who don’t wish to be automatically considered as donors would have to opt out instead.

Something few are aware of is that the donor must be alive when the decision is made to take their organs. If they have been dead for longer than a very short while, their organs are worthless. Corneas, skin and bone can be donated up to several hours after death.

Keeping a very ill patient alive, when the chances are they’re going to die, is heavy on resources. If such a patient is in a National Health Service hospital and is a registered donor, there exists a temptation for the doctors to fail to pull out all the stops to save the individual, simply because they would rather pull out his organs to give to a more promising patient instead. A registered donor, who could have made a full recovery, may not get the chance to do so.

There are accounts of newly injured patients being declared “brain dead”, without having undergone the required tests, and doctors telling families that a relative’s condition is hopeless just to convince them to approve organ extraction. Sometimes the family has refused, and the patient has recovered.

As in the US, anyone in private healthcare in the UK should be aware that hospitals are for-profit institutions and have a financial interest in procuring healthy organs for paying customers. This may make a difference in how much care is given to a patient whose organs are desired, or affect when such a patient is considered to be effectively not savable. There may be more effort put into extracting the organs at the opportune moment than in spending more time and money on medical treatments.

A new field of scientists called “bioethicists” have been suggesting that doctors should be allowed to kill and harvest the organs of people with cognitive and physical disabilities or who are in comas. Ironically argue for this on humanitarian grounds, although most humanitarians would be aghast - but the profit motive may well be the real force behind these notions. Some bioethicists suggest that certain categories of people have no awarness of the value of their lives, and so it would be kinder to give their organs to others who do.

In the short term, it might seem humanitarian to save an individual’s life by means of an organ transplant. But look at the long term consequences, and the prospect of many more people with defective organs being born! If someone has such a problem with an organ, it could occasionally be caused by something such as poisoning or a physical accident that the victim has no control over. In most cases, however, the reason for the organ being defective is either because of the victim’s own self-abuse (eg. drugs) or through a genetic flaw. When extra life is granted to such people, or just an increase in their quality of life, what happens is that they will tend to reproduce and spread their weakness to others. In time, all babies would be born with such conditions. This is why organ donation is really an irresponsible act, which falls into the typical short-sighted humanitarian trap of ruining life on Earth. The cliché “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, sums this up.

When people have to actively sign up to become organ donors, they go to some effort to do this. Sometimes they are beseeched to sign up by someone who approaches them on the street of a town center and they may feel mean if they don’t sign, especially when not armed with the facts. But, to actually go to the trouble of opting outof the scheme, is not something most people would be much inclined to do. The whole matter involves facing up to the prospect of their own death, the reality that their time may end at any moment, and thoughts of how their body may be treated in hospital. If you opt out, you might even worry that you are wearing your misanthropic heart too visibly on your sleeve, and that your doctor will dislike you for it! There’s no point in this concern. The doctor has far more reason to dislike an obese smoker who refuses to kick the habit.

Make sure that you do opt out if these changes go ahead. Really it is the most conscientious and wisest decision - and it may even save your life.