Posted by
Greg England on Saturday, April 12, 2008 2:01:41 PM
Get your head around this story:
Quote:
Laura Ashworth, 21, was prepared to become a "living donor" for her mother Rachel Leake, 39, who has kidney failure. But she died from an asthma attack before the transplant could happen. As a signatory to the NHS Organ Donor Register, her kidneys and liver were given to three patients on the official UK Transplant waiting list two days after her death.
A key ethical principle of the current "undirected deceased donation" system is that neither the donor nor their family can choose who receives their organ when they die.
This applies even if an individual had expressed such a wish while alive by starting the process of becoming a living donor.
I agree that if you sign up to be an NHS organ donor, then it should be the NHS who decide who gets your donated organs on the basis of clinical need. I also agree that unless you have made a formal request to decide who to donate your organs to (e.g. through a living will) then the NHS should decide who gets your donated organs on the basis of clinical need.
But if you have expressely wished that your organs are donated to a particular individual (e.g. a family member), then why on earth shouldn't your choice be honoured?
Here's what the libs say in response to this (also from the article):
"We do not want it to become the thin end of the wedge. For example if someone only wants to donate to a person of the same religion - where do you draw the line?"
Yet again we have liberals using demagogic arguments. The arguments are cunningly logical, and we could spend all night discussing the management of the UK Transplant register.
But it's yet another liberal red herring.
We are not talking about a daughter wanting to donate her organs to Catholics. We are talking about a daughter wanting to save the life of her mother. But because of liberal ideology that cares about the collective (and crushes the individual) we end up in a situation where it is illegal to give someone a part of your body after death unless the government decides who benefits.
That's not medicine. That's socialism.
Pro-abortion campaigners are always banging on about how it's their body, and their right to choose.
But in a national health system, your body belongs to the state ... even when you die.
Post blog note:
I have since discovered that the rules in at least one Florida hospital are somewhat different:
Quote:
Q. Can I specify who will get my organs and tissues?
A. Yes. You can leave your organs and tissues to specific people (if they meet medical criteria), but you may not leave organs and tissues to a specific race, creed, religion, etc.
Exactly. If Americans can get the ethics right, why can't the UK.
This paragraph makes a mockery out of the reasons that UK NHS libs were giving for refusing to allow someone to donate to a specific individual. Thin end of the wedge my ...