Thetownend.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7186007.stm

Obviously I have a vested interest in this issue, but was wondering what poeples views were. Do any of you actually carry a donor card?  Do you think there should be presumed consent?

Yep, I think if you're passionately opposed you'll make your feelings known, there is so much more good to come out of donation, they are much more use to someone else than you if you're dead, without wishing to state the bleeding obvious.  Too often people become irrational in grief, and if it were me I'd like to think my death hadn't been in vain and that someone else's family wouldn't have to face the same as mine.

i wouldn't have any qualms about being put on a doner list if i had the option to opt out of it. (i wouldnt tho) as i have a donor card (not that anyone would want my kidneys :-) )

I dont see a problem, its not hard to say "no, take me off the list" i think it would help people in such positions.

as much as i support this, i don't think you can go down the line of presumed consent. the current "opt in" scheme is right, and as it should be.

i think it would be a good idea for banks and credit card companies to offer cards with the donor symbol on, as people are more likely to be carrying a cash card than the current donor card.

The main issues with the current opt in scheme are two fold.  Firstly the transplant list is getting longer each year, and waiting times are growing considerably. This links into the second issue, economics. It costs the NHS £85,000 a year to keep me alive, the savings if i get a transplant are huge. there are currently over 8000 people on transplant waiting lists, you do the maths.

This makes me sad.  :(

EDIT: Yes I do carry a donor card. Don't know if anything is worth retrieving though.

Why don't they send out a national mailshot for opting in? I've never been asked to opt in for donation, I've had to make the effort to do it by going online and ordering a form. If everyone was asked over the course of the next year you could probably double the number of donor cards (or at least people who have opted in on a database) in one year.

Lebowski - the credit card idea is a good one, people would then carry it without thinking about it.

Am I not right in thinking even if you opt in, your next of kin can opt you out after your death?  that is unfortunate. Both the idea of a mailshot or putting into credit cards / driving licenses would be good.  It could be incorporated into a national ID card scheme too, if it ever happened (not that I wnat ID cards, but it is an easy way of canvassing the opinion of the whole population).

i would suggest putting it in the next census but i don't think the data is allowed to be used for anything other than statistics.

take what you like but not my retinas.

let's not get onto ID cards!

i should make my earlier comment clearer, i think an auto opt in is a great idea, but achieving it, and then ensuring that it was correctly administered (ie, all opt outs be correctly processed) would be tremendously hard.

i think it would also be one of those issues where you would have to have 100% buy-in (or near as damn it) to get it passed.

I carry a card and I am also on the Bone Marrow register

I back donors 100%, my wishes are use what you can, eyes kidneys the lot

Needs looking at totally

I'm sure there was a bit about organ Donation on my Driving License form, however my license has no visible mark of my agreeing to donation.

I'll get a proper card, to go with my Blood donor card.

I'm a sperm donor

With 1000's of female Swindon residents on the register.

Stop derailing an important thread you cunt.  :D

sorry

 :mrgreen:

FWIW, I'd support opt-out, there's loads of people who just don't quite get round to it and if you strongly object you can opt out. Although given I very much doubt any of me will be any use whatever once I've gone as I'm busy wrecking it all, this probably doesn't apply to me. But if you can use it, you can have it. Erm, I'd like a couple of proper doctors to certify death before you start taking it though.

Apparently, one member of this forum was heard offering his liver and kidneys (both well pickled) in exchange for a lift home from Birmingham International Airport yesterday.  Unsurprisingly, he was turned down!!

I'm for opting out. And then when people do opt out they should use the organs anyway and just not tell their families. mwahahaha.

Any of me which isn't any use to anybody else I want cooked up and served at my wake. Ben Burgers. Mmmm...

Secretly of course. Tell 'em it's pork otherwise they might not eat it.

Can a rasta jew eat pork?

fuck yeah. I can't live without my bacon.

i think it should definetely be presumed consent.
i give blood and carry a donor card and think anything that could save a life and save some poor family tears should be done.
for me its more of an ethical issue than a economic one as mex points out, but knowing that confirms it as a no brainer for me.

can't see why anyone would be against it, but if you are, with presumed consent you can opt out if you have an objection.

That's almost beautiful you black bastard.  :D

no thanks strood, i dont want no black man kidney.

I used to love giving blood, haven't done it for ages though. Free biscuits and tea and normally some fit birds about.

I'm not sure you'd get the same level of attractiveness in the Moose Hall or down the County Ground or wherever you do it in Swindon.

I'll have to check the dates.

of course, people from ethnic backgrounds shouldnt be allowed to donate anything.
except penises for ash.

county ground on friday incidentally, get yourself down there.

Yeah I just checked and found that out.

I'll probably forget but I might head down.

At that cost, Governmental Harvesting squads could be set up as self funding

I always carry a Donor card and as Sonic says they can have everything they want from me witht he exception of my retinas, I dont know why thats my only problem with it!

When I am gone I dont need any of my bits any more so they are welcome to it.

I have also told my missus to tell them to take what they want if for any reason I do not have my card on me and shes the same.

I'm sorry, but if that cunt Aaron Brown thinks it's a good idea, then I'm against it............................

Your sister liked my size

I'm a selfish bastard. I'd accept donated organs if i needed them, but i don't want to donate any of mine when i'm dead. I guess that makes me a bad person. :(

i dont see whats wrong with it. your dead, so what does it matter if they take out your liver to help save someone elses life?

I'm on the register and everyone in my family knows my whole body is open for medical pillaging should i die.

I'm also on the bone marrow register, but am probably not anymore, as rather annoyingly, i'm not allowed to give blood. This is apparently because i have received blood after a certain time, and they're unable to check for some cjd related thing. :? Surely my blood is better than none?

I get annoyed by the lack of donors, probably not as much as Mex, because i don't need anything, but seems so silly to not let someone have something you don't need and can't use. And that includes blood.

Opt out is the way of the future. Who gives a fuck what happens to your organs when you're dead?

Loads more organs would be made available and more people could be saved/have a better quality of life.

It's a complete no-brainer for me.

In a related note has anyone seen the media backlash for this? one TV station yesterday reported that "your organs will be taken with or without your consent!"

What a load of bollocks, you can opt out if you want to and if you don't the doctors still have to check with your family to make sure it's ok with them.

I watched Loose Women earlier. The crazy (more) right wing one was worried that they'd start harvesting your organs before you were dead. She even had some anecdotal story which she obviously considered to be the same as some hard core statistic of something which happens regularly.

Top telly.

They harvest them in America, well criminal "doctors" do don't they? Or at least they used to such was the demand and money paid for organs.

I listened to a radio programme when in new Zealand, talking about how prisoners in China were forced to give organs up (Kidneys most probably), and how the market for selling them was developing, seriously disturbing stuff.

Although there is a compelling argument for shorter prison sentances for those who sacrifice a Kidney.

Can be quite topical that programme. One of them is not that bad either i dont think

It's a bit daily mail sometimes. Mindless enough to have on in the background.

there is a man who sits in the same dialysis room as me, have known him 15/16 months, he has been on transplant list for that whole time, last month he travelled to india and bought a harvested kidney. he died one week after his return.

twat.

Just to drag up the organ donor thing again and have a little rant...

Has anyone received a letter from the NHS recently to confirm, for the umpteenth time, that they're willing to be a donor? Bureaucracy is going to start costing lives soon - if it hasn't already of course.

Personally, I can't recall the number of times I registered, told my doctor, told family, registered on the website, held a donor card, etc, yet now, again they want me to fill in a form and post it to confirm I want to be a donor.

I hate red tape and this letter has made me angry. Very angry infact. Not because I can't be arsed to fill in a simple form and post it, but because this will, no doubt, chop the list of those willing to donate massively and all because some nothing-to-do, government tosspot feels in necessary to get permission. Again.

A family's word should be good enough for permission of whether or not to harvest an opinionless dead body of anything useful in my opinion. It should actually be opt-out, not opt-in I think anyway.

I dont agree with a compulsory scheme...if a person dosn't want to donate his/her organs so be it.
The problem with this country is that we lack common sense....it only needs the doctor to ask whether you consent or not....i mean we all go there......as for a child then ask the parents before death,not after that seems often to be the case.
I wish you all the best Mexico....for what it is worth i would donate an organ tomorow for you if could.....but i respect those who wish not to.

On a related topic could I appeal to people to consider registering with:

http://www.anthonynolan.org/What-you-can-do/Save-a-life/Online-application.aspx

It's a lot easier nowadays, no blood or bone-marrow samples required, they just send you a cheek-swab through the post, and you send it back.

I tried to do it myself the other day but the ungrateful bastards binned me off because I'm too old, (so only for the kids and the 30-somethings I'm afraid.

Cheers for the reminder Lumps, been meaning to register for a while.

My mum registered with them years back (I think they used to do it in conjunction with the blood donation service) and she ended up being a match for someone more than 20 years down the line.

Got asked to donate Platelets a month or so back...not particularly against doing it but they asked me to pop down to my "local donor centre" aka the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Not terribly convenient that seeing as how I don't have a car.

Anyone done it?

Thanks for this. Been meaning to do it for years, and didn't know you could do it online, so have signed up. You might have saved a life there!

On the organ donation front, the sensible thing to do is think about where the supply of good organs comes from. You want a steady supply of young-ish, healthy-ish people. So I would set up a scheme where anyone buying a motorbike could get £25 off if they sign up for the organ donation register at the same time. Problem solved.