Automatic Organs

From the Globe and Mail:
"Nova Scotia eyes making organ donation automatic"

The Nova Scotia government is considering becoming the first province to make organ donation automatic unless people opt out before they die, a proposal that could reignite the debate about whether presumed consent laws should be enacted elsewhere to help the thousands of Canadians awaiting a transplant  Health Minister Leo Glavine said he is preparing to ask the province’s deputy health minister to lead an online public consultation asking Nova Scotians whether they would support a “reverse onus” law that would compel people to register their opposition if they do not want their organs harvested after death. “It would make available additional organs each and every year,” Mr. Glavine said in an interview. “[Reverse onus] is a considerable step to move from where we are, but one that Nova Scotians have expressed a desire for us to investigate. As a government, we’re prepared to now go down that path.” The consultation is expected to take a few months, he added.

Advocates of presumed consent say the approach could increase Canada’s deceased donor rate, which has inched up in the past decade, but remains low compared with other developed nations. Opponents warn it could deprive people of the right to control what happens to their bodies after death without guaranteeing an uptick in organ donations. Canada had 15.5 deceased donors per million in 2012, according to a report released in February by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI.) In France, Italy and the United States, the rate is between 20 and 30 per million. Spain, which has a presumed consent law, has more than 30 deceased donors per million. Spain’s success is not necessarily proof presumed consent works, said Ronnie Gavsie, president and chief executive of Trillium Gift of Life Network, which co-ordinates deceased donations in Ontario.

Prince Edward Island began looking into a reverse onus law in 2012 and the idea is still on the table, according to Angela Carpenter, the province’s new organ and tissue donation and transplant manager. But PEI is not pursuing such a law, she said. Ontario convened a citizens’ panel on organ donation in 2007 that rejected presumed consent. “A number [of participants] argued it was a violation of civil rights and said this negative option approach was not acceptable in Ontario. The major concern focused on doubts that the government would properly inform everyone, especially new Canadians, those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, and those with mental disabilities,” the panel said in its report.

^ I don't like any of this. People should be automatically enrolled to give up their organs and have to opt out. It should be the usual rule of opting in to be a donor. I understand it would help save more lives, but it is too great of a cost in the lost of personal freedom. If these laws pass the next step would be for the Government to force every living person to give their organs. I mean you can live will only one kidney right? This is just an all-out bad idea. ^

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/nova-scotia-eyes-making-organ-donation-automatic/article18202557/