Organ Transplants - should you honour the wishes of the deceased?

We have had this discussion on a previous thread when I think all that needed saying was said.

Well that shuts me up and all the rest of us that weren't around then - I find your post bloody arrogant and take it personally. I'm listening to the item as I type on the Today programme and there is new information to consider.

Oh I know - I'll start a really important thread about what people should wear to the funeral to show their respect

Personally I would do mey very best to honour the person's wishes, however hard it might feel.

Mishap - what do you think about some system for involving whoever would give consent after the death beforehand? I suppose if we sign up we should always have discussed it anyway but sometimes that's not possible - a relative may have religious or cultural views that are quite different

I have always carried a donor card, although it is not necessary in France as it has the 'opt-out' system. I told my daughters and one said that of course she would carry out my wishes, but the other said she would not as she could not bear to think of me being 'cut up'. This the same daughter who has now completely rejected me, so I am glad to be going to live near the other daughter in New Zealand.
Surely, the last thing your relatives can do for you is to honour your wishes.
Bluebell, we need new perspectives on old issues, so please keep posting.

I think the donor's wish should be honoured. What is the point of signing on as an organ donor otherwise?

When I signed on I informed important people in my life, which is what is advised, and they all said "Good".

Is the problem arising because relatives weren't aware of the dead person's wish to be an organ donor?

Re your last comment, bluebell about religious or cultural views, why should one type of view over-ride another? Once again, it seems to me on the face of it to be religious people wanting special privileges. One law for all, I say.

Could be, Bags. When you apply for a new driving licence, there's a box to tick if you wish to be a donor. But maybe, once done, one forgets about it?

That wasn't how I did it, ariadne. I signed up online and then emailed a direct link to Hub and the two grown up DDs. If they forget that shouldn't make a difference. It won't in their case, but you see what I mean.

I don't think the religious views of relatives should over-ride the wishes of the deceased.
A slight digression - I think people whose culture/religion forbids them from being donors should stick to their principles and refuse a donated organ.

Simple answer, Yes. No-one has the right to over-ride another's decision especially from a position of power - you're dead and I'm still here!

As for another past forum on the subject, so what, life and information develop all the time and need resurrecting occasionally - unlike the poor dead people.

Nanban Isn't the problem that the next of kin does have the right to over-rule his/her relative's wishes in the eyes of the law?

All my family are aware that I am on the organ register, I would hope they would honor my wishes.

That clearly is the problem. The law needs to be changed. Morally, no-one should have that legal right. Its being a legal right does not make it morally right.

Bags Then who would the corpse belong to? I don't feel happy about the idea of the state owning my body and I don't suppose the state would want the responibility of disposing of it.

But the state does have the ultimate responsibility of disposing of it. If you have no relatives, or if they can't pay for a funeral, the 'state' (i.e. society) must.

As for ownership after death, who cares? If whoever 'owns' my body after I'm dead wants to feed me to the birds, that's fine by me. Worms and bacteria if buried after all. Doesn't really matter how one gets into the food chain. Even ashes help with that.

But I can see the legal tangle we're getting into. It just seems a bit daft to be an organ donor in the hope that someone might benefit from a piece of you when you're dead, only to have that living decision over-ruled by someone who doesn't like it.

And whose body it isn't and never was.

absent, easy answer to your personal problem with it is don't be an organ donor. The issue here is whether those who have chosen to be possible organ donors have their choice over-ruled by someone else. I don't think that is right.

I'm coming round more and more to an opt-out system. The news today was good about the increase in organ donors but said that there was still a huge problem with South Asian and black communities who, for example, are 3x as likely to need a kidney transplant but whose willingness to donate is very very small. Because of tissue matching etc, that really reduces their chances of getting one when they need it. The thing about opt-out we know is that many people wouldn't bother and so the number of organ donors would increase - but would there then be a backlash against the opt-out system then which might increase the numbers opting-out? It's complicated isn't it and I do wonder that when there are religious arguemnts against donating , do they equally apply to receiving? How many other countries have opt-outs and how do they work?

AS far as I remember from the last time we talked about this, many religious groups that forbid organ donation from their members are quite happy for them to accept organs from other people.
JW are an exception, they will neither give nor receive anything that involves blood, but I believe that great strides have been made in recycling a patient's own blood and this has been of benefit to plenty of non-JWs.
The religious objections are so riddled with contradictions that they are quite laughable. For example, one reason given is that the body must be able to rise up whole on the day of judgement. They don't say what happens to amputees. Basing modern rules on the conditions that appertained thousands of years ago is clearly not acceptable.
I am not aware that any Christian churches forbid either giving or receiving organs, but I look to my good friends to give us the answer.

I have been on the donor register for yonks. My card is in my purse. My family know my wishes on the matter. It makes perfect sense to allow another to make use of any useable spare parts, when my time is up. After which, the remainder will become stardust.

I've been on the donor register for years and my family know my wishes but I have my doubts that my OH will comply he can't bear the thought.. I've told my eldest daughter to try to over ride him but I have my doubts it would be allowed and I can't bear the thought of them 'fighting' about it after I'm gone so I haven't done anything legal about it I guess I just hope he will comply but I really don't think he will as he gets upset if I even bring the subject up silly man (in the nicest possible way) .

Soory bluebell not intended to "shut" you or anybody "up" I just meant that many of us who have had personal experience of transplantation will have commented on the previous thread and may not wish to repeat ourselves, so there are valid comments which you may like to read. If you lok at "Search forums" you will find the previous threads. Of course fresh perspectives and comments are necessary but you and others may wish to read what GNers with first hand experience have to say.