The Gift of Life

Views on Organ Donation

I decided to post the following message on babyworld today:

Almost half of those who are asked to consent to donating their relative’s organs refuse.

Would you be an organ donor, or give consent for your relative’s organs to be donated?

How many of you have signed up to the NHS organ donor register?

Is it right that relatives have the final say, even if they are knowingly going against the wishes of the deceased person?

I have always wanted to donate my organs, and would also donate my husband’s or children’s should I be in that unfortunate position.

I feel this is a topic that families should discuss so that relatives are not trying to make a decision at a time of extreme trauma – I am sure this contributes to the high refusal rate.

I was interested in particular to find out what reasons people might have for objecting to donating their organs. I have always thought I would want to be an organ donor, long before we entered the world of biliary atresia and liver transplants. Why are there so few donors? Less than a fifth of the UK population are signed up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Well, I didn’t really find the answers I was looking for, and although I got a lot of replies to my post, it is now being bumped further down the thread, so I don’t think I will…..

The majority of respondents said that they were either signed up to the register or that they would be willing to be donors. I noticed that some of the people that seem to have an opinion on every topic did NOT post – I wonder if they are not willing to be donors but do not feel they can justify why.

A few people responded to say that although they wished to be donors, their husband or partner was completely against it and perhaps would not carry out their wishes. I am absolutely appalled by this and I believe that the deceased person’s wishes should be final. If someone has signed up to the register then that should not be overridden by their relatives.

The need for consent from next of kin also places a difficult yet crucial decision upon the most recently bereaved – not a group of people capable of the most rational thought, in my opinion. This decision should be made away from such a stressful situation.

I would go further than this and say you should need to ‘opt out’ rather than ‘opt in’, i.e. your organs would be donated unless you expressly stated you did NOT wish this to happen. If anyone feels strongly enough against donation they would do this. It would also mean that some people would really think about why they did not wish to donate, rather than being apathetic about it.

Only two respondents said they would definitely not donate their organs. I did not start this discussion to attack people, rather to gather information, so I did not criticise or closely question either of them. One of them did not give any reason for their unwillingness, but the other response really disturbed and upset me.

This person was anti-donation because her father had died while waiting for a heart transplant. Yes, you did read that correctly. Her posts were short, just a few lines, but my impression of her stance was “No-one wanted to donate the heart my dad needed, so I don’t want to donate to anyone else.” She did actually call herself selfish. She also said that she would not be willing for her children to be recipients of human organs. When I asked if this was because she did not want to go through the whole, awful waiting process, possibly for nothing, she said that this was part of the reason.

I don’t know how recent her bereavement was, but it came across that her feelings were still very raw. I am not trying to judge or criticise her here. I do not know the full story and I have not walked in her shoes. I am just shocked by her reaction. I just assumed that anyone who had suffered bereavement because of the lack of donors would be completely pro-donation and would never want anyone else to have to go through the same thing. I prayed that I would never have to experience such bitterness in my heart.

I knew when I started the thread that it would not be easy to read people’s responses in some cases, and I was right. The other really frightening aspect was that there were several people who were pro-donation, yet did not feel they would be able to donate their children’s organs. At least adult livers can be cut down – what about children waiting for hearts, kidneys, lungs, liver and bowel………

I feel the need to do something, to do my bit to increase the number of donors, but as yet I’m not sure what……..this could be a VERY long term project!

If you are reading, and are not registered as an organ donor, PLEASE take a few moments to do so now. In the UK, you just need to fill in your details on the UK Transplant Website.