Hi Fred,

As I see it, at the moment in this country the donors family have to agree
to the organs being used for transplantation, the Doctors can't take the
organs without their permission, the Card is only on object that expresses
the wishes of the donor, If they were as legal as a will then the relatives
permission wouldn't be needed.

I have been on dialysis for over six years, I've had Cancer (13 years ago)
and have other health problems. I have been told that I will not get a
transplant, because they think it "may" kill me. I know that without a
transplant I will die anyway, could be quite soon, I have to rely on a
permacath because I can't have another fistula. Permacaths are supposed to
be temporary access for up to a couple of months, sometimes slightly longer.
I have had several and the last one I had for three years, the present one I
will have had for a year at Christmas, It took five weeks and seven attempts
to get it in, if I get an infection in this one there is no guarantee that I
will get another one. In my case it isn't the shortage of organs that is the
problem, it is the shortage of good transplant surgeons that's stopping me
from having one.

Cheers,
Len.
UK


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-----Original Message-----
From: Reid, Fred [mailto:afr1@...]
Sent: 15 October 2000 10:59
To: BODY-UK@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [BODY-UK] Public Opinion


Thanks Tracy and Len for the replies. I wanted to see what replies I got
before giving my thoughts on the issue. I fear that Tracy put the state of
affairs mildly. I reckon that the opinion poles are just plain wrong, I
reckon that people only really give an honest answer to whether they would
want their organs to be used by actually getting an organ donor card, and
that when asked in opinion poles alot of people just say yes (rather than no
or not sure) so as not to look selfish (or whatever) or admitt it to
themselves.

Len wrote
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
It doesn't matter If everyone carried a card, while the law allows their
next of kin to revoke it, plenty of organs will be lost.

We should be fighting for the Opt-out clause and get rid of the opt-in
clause.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well we could go further than that.

Considering life saving transplants only, not allowing usable organs to be
transplanted means leaving those who would have otherwise received those
organs at risk of dieing from their conditions, in fact given the shortage
of organs some of those people will die. Therefore not allowing
transplantation is in effect killing people yet this is considered lawfull.
Discuss ......

Fred

P.S. Legal question: If someone carries a donor card, unfortunatly dies but
the relatives object to transplantation, is there a legal obligation for
their wishes to be followed? Rather than just that the hospital has the
discretion to follow the relatives wishes rather than the wishes of the
deceased.




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