Should Organ Donation be Mandatory?

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Let's cut to the chase here, I see nothing in the Constitution that prevents the government from assessing ownership rights over the carcasses of people. Do we really need to go further in the legal argument? Even if you prove that human organs are property, the government can still take them away with due process.

With "due process", the government ultimately can do almost anything - the only issue is whether it is right for them to do so.

By that logic because the criminal justice system isn't as equitable as it should be, we should open the floodgates and allow the rich to purchase justice openly.

By your logic, all drugs and treatments should be free. As perhaps they should, but it plain isn't. I'm merely looking at that reality and wondering why organs should be the exception to this rule.

Why set any controls at all? The current system works fine, aside from a lack of supply. You don't need to go to the hassle of purchasing organs with a mandatory donor registry.

The current system is a control set at ZERO. You cannot say you want it to be donors only for organs and say you want no price control on the organ market.

As an aside, would it even be donor or donation if it is mandatory? Is conscription a "donation" of two years to the military? Is taxation a "donation" to government services? If you think it is OK to randomly rip organs off dead bodies go ahead

No it doesn't; one has nothing to do with the other. Depriving property rights with due process upon the dead is not even close to the same thing as depriving a healthy person of functioning organs while still alive. Utilitarianism does not demand that every slippery slope be followed despite your simplistic interpretation of it.

Actually, it does, because mathematically the only thing that has changed is the relative value ratio - relative value to you versus relative value to the gainers. The unfortunates wil always demand that the ratio be pushed flatter.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

1)

If you think it is OK to randomly rip organs off dead bodies go ahead

Append: "but let's not use words implying volunteering when you are at it."

2) Append: The system does not work fine if there is a lack of supply.

[FSTargetDrone]

Doctors or other healthcare workers should be allowed to talk about organ donation with a patient. Have them (the medical people) bring it up during a physical, for example. Provide forms for the patient to sign if he or she is interested. If the patient is a minor, talk with the minor's parent or guardian.

The only time I've ever had someone ask me or have seen a place where I could easily sign up is when I get my driver's license renewed every 4 years.

More public service announcements, mailings, all this stuff that's been suggested before are needed.

[Son of the Suns]

I feel that anyone who wishes to recieve an organ donation should be required to sign as an organ donor unless they are a minor. I also think that if a person makes a decision to become an organ donor, and it is in writing, then the family should not be able to overrule that decision.




Also, for those saying your body is your property, you would be incorrect. Under current law quite a bit of your genetic material has been copywritten by companies which identify genes.

[Macunaima]

Finnish legislation on this says:

Section 9
Consent
Organs and tissues of a deceased person may be removed
unless there is reason to assume that the person would
have objected while still alive, or that a near relative
or other close person would object.

If a person has, while alive, given consent to the
removal of organs and tissues for the purpose referred to
in section 8, paragraph 1, the measure can be performed
despite being forbidden by a near relative or other close
person.

While I belief that the above is a reasonable practice I do have to admit that I would like to see mandatory organ donations upon death to be written in to law, just so I could see the selfish swines who, for what ever inane reason, refuse to donate their organs squirm.

The current Brazilian legislation is very similar on that regard, but before it, in 1997 the Congress actually approved (and sanctioned by then President Cardoso) a bill to implement a mandatory organ donation with an opt-out. However, due to a lack of a previous information campaign about it, there was a massive outcry by the public, with lots of people afraid that they could be victims of an eventual "organs black market", where they could be prematurely declared as dead just to have their organs removed to be sold, and other general objections against the bill. In some areas, seems that the massive spike of opt-outs lead to a decrease of organs available to transplant.

Some years later, several changes in the bill text were made as an intention to compromise between the previous legislation (where the organs were removed only if the deceased has explicit declared as a donator) and the 1997 legislation. So, it transferred the ultimate decision of donation to the family: if the deceased did not use the opt-out and the family doesn't have objections against it, then the organs are removed, with a family member agreeing with a signed document.