Date published: 2008/11/17
The BBC says:
Gordon Brown is not ruling out a change in the law on organ donation even though a panel of experts has rejected the idea of "presumed consent".
The UK Organ Donation Taskforce said assuming organs could be used unless people opted out was unlikely to boost donation rates.
A £4.5m public awareness campaign in England will be aimed at boosting voluntary donor numbers.
But the prime minister warned if it did not work a law change may follow.
The UK government does a very poor job at promoting organ donation. This 4.5 million pounds is a drop in the ocean. And that is even assuming the government ends up spending 4.5 million pounds (this government in particular is very unreliable with its spending claims). And what will they spend the money on? Probably some fancy and shocking TV ad, which everybody notices for ten seconds and then forgets about. The government instead needs to conduct a persistent and long-term grassroots campaign. Unfortunately government seems wholly incapable of doing any such thing. And Gordon Brown is unbelievably patronising about the issue. If the country doesn't do as he tells them, then he's going to treat the country like a bunch of naughty schoolboys.
The taskforce is probably wrong about boosting donation rates. But that is not the real issue. The real issue with all organ donation is that doctors and hospitals have an incentive to let people die just in order to get hold of their organs. With "presumed consent" the health profession would be saying they do not trust the people, so why should the people trust the health profession? (Some people still being naive enough to do so.)
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