And While I’m Ranting

Not only do we have bastard chief police officers wanting to lock us up without trial, we also have doctors who think they should have the right to just take our bodies without asking.

THE chief medical officer wants everyone to be treated as organ donors after death unless they explicitly opt out of the scheme.

Er, no. Our bodies belong to us, not the state. We decide what becomes of them after death, not the state. If we decide to donate them, then that should be our choice, not the state’s.

Sir Liam Donaldson believes the shortage of kidneys, livers and hearts is so acute that the country needs a donation system that will presume patients have given consent for their body parts to be transplanted.

Fuck Liam Donaldson! While I have sympathy with those in need of donated organs, those organs are a gift from someone who has made a rational choice before death. If they chose not to donate, well, that’s too bad.

Those who wanted to opt out would have to register in a similar way to those who now carry organ donor cards. This could be done through a central NHS database or through other documentation, such as driving licences.

No. Absolutely not. Any such system must be opt-in, not opt-out. What Donaldson is proposing presumes state ownership of our bodies unless we expressly specify otherwise. Opt-in is the inverse – we own our bodies and agree to donate if we so choose. That there are so few organ donors cannot be assumed to be a consequence of apathy on the part of potential donors. There are plenty of reasons why people may not wish to donate; ethical, religious or, simply, they don’t want to, and those reasons are no one else’s business. To force people to opt-out makes it the state’s business and that is unacceptable.

Such a fundamental change is likely to prove controversial as critics claim it gives the state new powers over people’s bodies.

That’s exactly what it does.

However, supporters of the change point out that hundreds of people die each year because of shortages of organs. More than 7,300 Britons are on the waiting list for a life-saving organ, a rise of about 30% over the past decade.

That is not a sufficient reason to allow the state ownership of our bodies.

Donaldson is expected to call for a change in the law when he publishes his annual report on the nation’s health on Tuesday. He has the backing of the medical profession. The British Medical Association (BMA) is already campaigning for presumed consent to be the default position.

The fucking BMA needs to realise that it is in the business of health care, not politics. Liam Donaldson is much like that totalitarian fucker Ken Jones – he is a public servant, not a politician. If he thinks otherwise, then he should give up medicine and stand for election.

A recent BMA report entitled Presumed consent for organ donation, states: “Each year, many people die waiting for organ transplant. At the same time, bodies are buried or cremated complete with organs that could have been used to save lives, not because the deceased objected to organ donation but simply because they never got round to signing up to the NHS Organ Donor Register or informing their relatives of their wishes.”

So because these people did not specifically tell the state why they were not on the register, the state is to assume in all its arrogance that they were guilty of apathy.

Donaldson, like the BMA, is expected to favour a “soft” opt-out that takes family members’ views into account. The BMA proposes that family members should be informed if a relative has not stated an objection to donation and be asked if they have any strong opposition.

The donation would go ahead unless families were aware of an unregistered objection, or if they would suffer extreme distress from the removal of a relative’s organs.

I suffer extreme distress when public servants start playing politics.

“We have exhausted all other ways of increasing the number of organs available but people are still dying on the waiting list, and that is making us more courageous.”

What a strange use of the word “courageous”. Taking without asking is rarely courageous. There are words to describe it, but courageous is not one of them.