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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, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday September 30 2014, @08:33AM
The problem is...doctors are human. They have prejudices, values you may or may not agree with, and I can assure you "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one" HAS played out in hospitals before. Put yourself in the doctor's shoes...you got three dying kids that could be saved OR you can give a little more time to the 30 something scumbag who may or may not pull through...who would YOU choose?
My mom spent her career between critical care and home health and I can tell you its really not that difficult to do, especially with head injuries. There has been cases when it was some adorable little girl where some doc wasted the organs because he just didn't want to accept little Suzy was toast and on the flip side there was a couple of cases where some scummy guy got his head bashed in a bar fight where mom really felt they didn't let the brain swelling go down enough to tell one way or another before they were stripping him like a used Buick....you'll find doctors really don't get contradicted all that often on these calls.
I mean sure if you had a "never fail" way of telling one from the other? Fine and dandy but let us not forget they recently had a doctor apply electricity to long term coma patients and get signs of wakening, not to mention there is that girl who wrote a book about being trapped in "a grey room" while they argued over whether to pull her plug and kill her.
As others noted the desire for organs is only gonna go up and I worry that this will only apply more pressure, hell look at Jobs getting an organ when he had fricking cancer because he cut a big enough check. Then there is the unintended consequences...did everybody just forget where the LVAD came from that saves thousands every year? It came from research into an artificial heart....research that would most likely never have happened if organs were plentiful.
So if you want to run ads, raise awareness, try to get people to donate? Fine but lets not be pussies and pretend that this isn't the same douchebaggery that we rail against when corps do it to get at your wallet...there is a reason why opt-out has such rep, its because its used to prey upon not only those too lazy but those that do not understand how to opt out or don't even know it exists...are we REALLY gonna throw our morals out the fucking window and become giant hypocrites because its something that we support? If so we might as well change the name to HuffyPo or FauxNews since it all okay as long as "our" side does it....because we are moral and just and perfect, right?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by GWRedDragon on Wednesday October 01 2014, @01:28AM
SPOT ON.
Additionally: choosing when to 'pull the plug' is always a fuzzy judgment call. It comes down to this: who owns your body, you or the state?
If you own your body, then you get to use it until all reasonable doubts have been exhausted. If the state owns it, you merely get to stay alive as long as it seems appropriate, then they can strip you for parts for the good of society. These two options are directly analogous to opt-in vs. opt-out. It is a question of where the burden rests in a questionable situation, similar to a legal burden of proof.
Opt-out makes you go out of your way to ensure your survival in fuzzy situations. Opt-in ensures your survival whenever possible by default. Because let's not lie to ourselves here: making yourself an organ donor is a conscious choice that you are willing to accept the risk of dying when you don't need to in exchange for the chance to help others. That is not a choice the state should be empowered to make for you.
[Insert witty message here]
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday October 01 2014, @05:13AM
Again if we had a foolproof way of saying "Yes short of jesus walking through that door and raising their ass they are absolutely dead as a doornail, no doubts at all" then i would have NO problem with this...but that isn't reality. Reality is we know just slightly above jack and shit when it comes to the brain, we don't know why a tiny hit will kill one while having half their brain crushed would leave another still functional, why some people have brains that seem to be able to reroute past injury given time, others can't...there is just so damned much we do not know.
Look at how in the 40s and 50s we though asbestos and radiation were great "modern miracles", how we though a lobotomy was a legit treatment for all kinds of mental illness...now we look upon those days with horror at just how backwards we were...who is to say we won't end up finding out the same when it comes to the brain? We recently had a doc make headlines by having partial "awakenings" style responses from those in deep coma by puling a Frankenstein and giving their brains an electrical jumpstart, what happens if it turns out you can do something similar with head injuries?
But to me the most damning thing is not a single person here wouldn't be screaming if it was a corp hitting them with "opt out" charges...why? Because we know opt out is mainly used for deception because there are many that will either not know how to opt out or who won't even notice a charge added to the bill...only in this case the bill is your very life! Are we REALLY so hypocritical that we will stoop to the same underhanded shit the telemarketers do just because WE decide the "ends justify the means"? Where does this end? Bet it wouldn't be hard to get convicted murderers and child molesters to be added to the list....see the problem? the SECOND you compromise your integrity because "the ends justify it" then the next time will be that much easier. there is a reason why the slippery slope is so well known, its because IT IS TRUE, look at how we went from Bush II saying "We only need to watch those in the Axis of Evil" to suddenly we are treated like criminals and we have "constitution free zones" covering a third of the population!
So if you want to get celebs to make ads, put up billboards, raise awareness to get more to join? I have again NO problem with that, but the second you stoop to the methods of the enemy you BECOME that enemy, and I for one hope we are better than that.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.