Presumed Consent: Organ Donation

According to Medical News Today, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden and other European nations use a policy called Presumed Consent for organ donations. With this policy, all individuals are considered organ donors unless they have enrolled in a government registry.

This is different from the way U.S. residents show their preference, currently they can show whether they want to be an organ donor or not on their drivers' licenses.

The way this policy of presumed consent works is when an individual dies, they are considered an organ donor unless they themselves have said otherwise in the government's registry. Presumed Consent Foundation, Inc would like to make it illegal for family members to override a person's choice to donate organs after they have died. Family members can object to their loved ones organs being donated after they have died, even if that person wanted to donate their organs.

People who support presumed consent say it could help increase organ donation and thus save more lives. But people who are against presumed consent are afraid individuals will think that getting an organ is more important than caring for the person who is dead or dying.

BBC NEWS reported that a public awareness campaign in England will be aimed at boosting voluntary donor numbers, but if that doesn't work the Prime Ministers has warned a law change may follow, allowing presumed consent. The UK is slated as having one of the lowest rates when it comes to organ donations. Nearly 1,000 people die waiting for a transplant, in the UK.

Would having laws changed allowing presumed consent damage the trust between doctors and patients and their families? If everyone was automatically registered how many people would actually bother to un-register and would this actually help people who are waiting for an organ transplant.

Is giving an organ after you die going to become an obligation instead of a gift and how is this going to make families feel when they are told their recently departed loved one never put their name on the registry so they shouldn't object to having their organs removed. Should the government be so involved in organ donation or should organ donation stay the way it is. A freely given gift from one family who's lost a loved on, to another family who is facing losing a loved one.

Presumed consent is in many European countries, but could it work in the U.S.?