15.01.13
Dear Ms Sargent,
I’m writing to register my opposition to introducing planned
consent for organ donation in Wales or any other part of the United
Kingdom. This would be an extremely serious development, rendering
organ donation no longer in any way ‘voluntary’ and
overturning the idea of organ donation as a free gift.
In practical terms, it would make the body the property of the
state, not the individual. This, especially when taken in
conjunction with the increasingly serious concerns about the
current definition of death, is extremely disturbing. At what
medical stage might the state in future find it expedient to
consider a person ‘dead’? Already, as David W Evans MD,
FRCP has noted:
“the basis upon which a mortally sick patient is declared
“deceased” – for the
purpose of acquiring his or her organs for transplantation without
legal
difficulties – is very different from the basis upon which
death is ordinarily
diagnosed and certified and that highly relevant fact is not fully
and generally
understood.”
There is also evidence that presumed consent does not necessarily
result in more organs available for transplantation, whilst it does
fundamentally alter the meaning of the word
‘consent’.
The proposed bill will give families little or no say in what
happens to their loved ones and amounts to the legal imposition of
State ideology. The drastic reduction in family involvement is
especially horrifying considering the growing controversy over the
definition of death. Will families have to allow their - in their
eyes - living relative to be wheeled away, paralysed with drugs,
anaesthetised and dismembered?
The immediate and future consequences of bringing in implied
consent are so morally dubious and fraught with ethical danger that
the government should concentrate on promoting genuinely voluntary
organ donation, with appropriate engagement - and transparency -
about the ethical demands surrounding the definition of
death.
I hope you will oppose this bill in its entirety.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Gardiner