World Opt-Out

Yesterday the German Parliament defeated a bill that would have forced every German who dies to automatically donate their organs unless they opt-out before their death. Most of Europe and South America have an opt-out system which means that every citizen from birth automatically becomes an organ donor. The only way to change that is to file official paperwork to opt-out (which can be time-consuming and confusing.) 

In 2017 Spain had the highest donor rate in the world at 46.9 per million people, followed by Portugal (34.0 per million), Belgium (33.6 per million), Croatia (33.0 per million) and the US (32.0 per million). These figures are misleading since Spain, Portugal and Belgium all have opt-out systems which automatically takes every citizens’ organs while Croatia and the US have opt-in systems. 

In 2020 England and Scotland will move to an opt-out organ donation system (Wales and Jersey already use opt-out.) 

In 2020 Nova Scotia, Canada will become the first place in North America to have an opt-out organ donation system.

For most of Europe there seems to be  little respect for the dead. First they take their organs and then they only rent the burial plots. In places like: Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, etc. if a relative doesn’t have the money to pay the burial rental fee or if a relative can not be found then the body is dug-up and either re-buried in a pauper’s grave or cremated and placed with other ashes. It doesn’t matter how many years, decades or centuries the body had been buried in its original location. 

Imagine a Government telling its citizens that they had to opt-out of other areas (not just organ donation): that every pregnant woman had to have an abortion unless they had signed the opt-out paperwork before they got pregnant. The opt-out system is simply a way for the Government to take control over the body of its citizens. 

I am all for voluntary organ donation, but not for automatic organ donation. 

The countries in brown on the map currently have opt-out organ donation systems.