SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the you-put-your-left-leg-in,-your-left-leg-out... dept.
ScienceDaily reports:
Researchers say there should be an international database containing the very latest information about organ donations and transplants, so policy makers can make informed decisions on whether to adopt an opt-out or opt-in system.
The call comes after a study [in the UK], carried out by The University of Nottingham, the University of Stirling and Northumbria University, showed that overall an opt-out system might provide a greater number of organs for transplant but many factors can influence the success of either system and a repository of accessible information would help individual countries decide which one would be better for them.
The research published in the online academic journal BioMed Central Medicine (BMC Medicine), is the first international comparison that examines both deceased as well as living organ/transplant rates in opt-in and opt-out systems.
[...] Professor Fergusson argues that it is imperative for transplant organizations to routinely collect data on important organ donation indices -- consent type, procurement procedure, number of intensive care beds and trained surgeons -- and make this publicly available to inform future research and policy recommendations.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hoochiecoochieman on Monday September 29 2014, @10:43PM
They implemented opt-out here, I guess 10 or 20 years ago.
At the time, I was perfectly fine with it. I'd been thinking about getting a donor card since forever, but was too lazy to actually do it.
I remember a lot of people were in a rage. Right-wing people were all upset about the religious and private-property part of it. Left-wing people were all about it being dictatorship.
I just used to tell everybody: "Dude, there's people dying right now because they don't get organs. If this can result in more available organs, I really don't give a fuck. If you're so concerned about it, nobody is forcing you to donate. Just get off your lazy ass and go file an opt-out form". That would usually set it. They would say "I'm going there first thing tomorrow". Yeah, right.
This was many years ago. I'm yet to find a single person who has opted-out. If it were really so important, they would have bothered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30 2014, @01:10AM
It would have been informative if you had specified the location of "here" with the name of the country or region where the opt-out you mentioned was implemented.
(Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Tuesday September 30 2014, @09:24AM
Portugal.
(Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Tuesday September 30 2014, @09:26AM
Not that the actual country is important, anyway.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday September 30 2014, @09:38PM
I'm not sure an opt-out system is really all that appropriate given the circumstances. My first feeling was uncomfortable about an opt-out system. I checked, and I do have the organ donor mark on my license.
You bring up a point, the rage to this was bipartisan. Why was everybody so bothered, and how did they come from such diverse viewpoints and cultures?
An opt-out system assumes a much higher level of maturity and courage than is present in most people. I can very easily understand, especially younger people, that the thought of death itself is upsetting and avoided. Throw it in their face, and then say you are cutting them open and harvesting their organs? That's just provocative and we should not be shocked when they react belligerently.
It's natural for people want to have control in their lives, and our organs are kind of personal.
Perhaps an opt-in system is just easier to work with, and even the busiest people some how find the time. It was on my license and I didn't remember till the article.
I'm not sure I see the point either. If we are losing opportunity, just make the choice mandatory in order to get a drivers license. That's a privilege and not a right, and a rather popular activity. I can see a rather large database of those choices becoming available soon after that would become policy.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.