Organ-ised
Posted: Mon 22 August, 2005 Filed under: Health 3 Comments »
The BBC this week is launching a season called “DoNation“, designed to make more people sign up to be organ donors. I’m not sure how useful it will be – but anything that gets more people to sign up is a good thing in my book.
Personally, I believe that the organ donation scheme should be one where you have to “opt out” rather than “opt in” – although on the BBC breakfast programme this morning there was a spokesman for the NHS who said that it shouldn’t be this way, because the donation of organs was a gift from a person, and as such should be seen that way, rather than a requirement. And when it’s phrased like that, I can’t disagree. All the same though, when you see how many people don’t sign up “because it’s too much effort”, you do start to wonder just how simple it has to be in order for people to do it. And if the situation were reversed, how many would actually “make the effort” to ensure they weren’t on the list?
In order to make things “easier”, the NHS has even sorted out a way to register online to be on the organ donor database. It’s an amazingly easy thing to do – one set of information, and that’s it. Or you can sign up by calling the NHS on 0845 60 60 400. Go on, it’s worth it.
I remember when I was sending off for my drivers licence, there was a ticky-box for Organ Donation which I duly ticked. It says nothing about it on my licence; is there actually any use to me ticking that? Should I sign up for Organ Donation again?
I figure registering twice is better than it being in doubt. I think it does say it somewhere in the data on your licence, but yeah, I’d register again just to make sure…
Since when has organ donation been ‘a gift’ A gift is a box of chocs or a nice bottle of perfume, organ donation is a bit more serious and it’s because of sentimental claptrap like that that people do not do it. At the end of the day the criteria (on the most part) for organ donation is death and being able to give a ‘gift’ when you are dead is pretty hard to do. If you are alive and are giving a kidney then one would hope that you are giving it abit more thought than that of buying your mate the next CD by MCFly – a gift. If we resort to calling organ donation a gift we really are in trouble.
People don’t sign organ cards for several reasons, one they don’t want to, two they do want to but never get around to it because it is not priority (which it should not be, who wants to priortise what to do when you die when you should be using the time prioritising what you do when you are alive) or three, they do want to but feel that they have plenty of time to do that sort of thing because they are going to live forever, only to be on life support the next day and leave the decision making to your next of kin. Answer me this, if you are on life support clinically brain dead, would you want your nearest and dearest (who will be ditraught as it is) to have to make that kind of heart rendering decision. Is it something you would want to put them through? No, me neither I have a donor card. The way I see it once we leave this mortal coil we do not have any need for our organs and if they can help someone else then whip em out. Rant finished!!!!!