Be Excellent To Each Other

Also, you see loads of people saying "Well, of course I would donate, but it should be opt-in, not opt-out". They of course do not have a donor card.

I am on the donor register so I don't have to carry a card..

I am on the donor register so I don't have to carry a card..

Under current law, if you want to donate your organs after death you must make your wishes known.

There are a number of ways of ensuring your wishes are taken into consideration:

Discuss your decision with a family member. This is vitally important. The medical team will require their help in the donation process in the event of your death. Understanding your reasons for wanting to donate will help them to carry out your wishes at a very difficult time. The relatives of organ donors often talk of finding great strength from this process as it means that other lives are saved. (See the organ donation video in Useful links).

Put your name on the NHS Organ Donor Register. This makes it easier for the NHS to establish your wishes as quickly as possible.

Carry a donor card. The donor card was introduced in 1971 at a time when only kidneys could be donated. It's still a valid method but if you're not carrying one in the event of your death there's a risk that your wishes won't be carried out.

I thought the register meant that your next of kin had the decision taken away from them...
Both me and the wife are on the register anyway..

Then the law needs changing...

First post, yo.

I think the way it actually works is that if you are registered and no-one can find your next of kin the doctors will take your bits. If you aren't registered and aren't carrying a card they won't.
If they have found your next of kin that next of kin is asked if they can take your organs or not.

I know, I was agreeing with teh first post..

It's up to your next of kin, which isn't going to be your wife if (God forbid) you are both killed. So the main thing you can do (like it says in that text there) is to tell your family.

I carry a Z card

I want to have Zardoz interfere with my corpse

FTFY

Also, has this "offensive on several levels" poster been shown here before

I have to say, I can't see any reason against it. Can anyone really come up with a justification why their organs should rot rather than save a life?

So opt-out then. What's the problem?

I have to say, I can't see any reason against it. Can anyone really come up with a justification why their organs should rot rather than save a life?

I don't particularly want my bleached skeleton, strung together with wires, gathering dust in some forgotten cupboard.

The possibility that we still feel pain after death?

I think you are missing the point of death here.

Currently It's a personal choice. You decide that you want your organs to be used after you've died. With an opt-out, however, the State assumes ownership of your body after you've died.

You know what's slightly depressing? The thought that the very best thing I'll likely do in my life might well come just after I cark it.

All this "up to the relatives" thing doesn't make much sense, given that there's no property in a corpse (which Mali researched for us a while ago on something else) - then the relatives don't own the body, so they cant, surely, legally stop someone from cutting it up into little usable chunks.

The HT Act makes it lawful for donation from the deceased to take place provided that consent was given by the person prior to their death.

In the absence of their wishes, consent may be obtained from a person nominated by the deceased person, from a family member or a person close to them.

All this "up to the relatives" thing doesn't make much sense, given that there's no property in a corpse (which Mali researched for us a while ago on something else) - then the relatives don't own the body, so they cant, surely, legally stop someone from cutting it up into little usable chunks.

Don't forget that, legally, the person supplying the organs isn't always dead - just brain-dead.

Don't forget that, legally, the person supplying the organs isn't always dead - just brain-dead.

I'm not sure I could care less about what happens to my remains when I've ceased to be, much like I don't give a shit about the ancestry of the atoms I'm made of right now.

A SOLDIER died after being given a pair of cancerous lungs in a hospital transplant operation.

Matthew Millington, pictured, died at his home in Brown Lees, Biddulph, after receiving the organs of a donor who is believed to have smoked between 30 and 50 roll-up cigarettes a day.

Experts from Papworth Hospital, in Cambridge, the country's main heart and lung transplant centre, yesterday told an inquest into the 31-year-old's death that, as a cancer patient, he would not then have been able to have a further pair of lungs.

An internal probe in the wake of the operation pinpointed a string of problems at the hospital, including issues with communication, record-keeping and patient handover.

And in Mr Millington's case it was recognised that a radiographer had failed to highlight the growth of a cancerous tumour.

Dr Steven Tsui, clinical director of transplant services, who was not involved in the procedure, told North Staffordshire Coroner's Court: "In this case there were a number of failures and I did not feel the team performed to the standard I would expect."

The hospital now has new systems in place.

Mr Millington was serving in Iraq with the Queen's Royal Lancers at Christmas 2005 when he was diagnosed with a lung illness.

He was subsequently given two years to live unless action was taken. He received a double lung transplant in April 2007.

But he died 10 months later as a result of damage caused by disseminated lung cancer.

A lack of communication between radiographers and consultants meant it was not until October 2007 that a tumour, which had grown from 8-9mm to 13mm between June and August 2007 was detected.

Its growth was accelerated by the immuno-suppressive drugs Mr Millington was taking to prevent his body rejecting the transplanted organ.

North Staffordshire coroner Ian Smith discounted a verdict of misadventure or neglect, recording Mr Millington had died from "complications of transplant surgery and immuno-suppressive drug treatment".

The coroner told the court: "This is the result the family wanted and at least these days there is more transparency about the way things are conducted and we are away from the old days where things would be hushed up.

I'll be fucking cooking on eternal fires.

I'd love to know what percentage chance of 'saving someone's life' having a donor card actually gives me. To be honest though as long as someone other than an undertaker gets some kind of benefit out of my corpse, it's fine. Medical science, propping a door open, necrophilia - sky's the limit as far as I'm concerned.