A controversial proposal to switch the U.K.’s current system of voluntary organ donation to a system of “presumed consent” was rejected by the UK Organ Donation Taskforce, which said the change would not increase organ donations and could damage patient-doctor as well as donor-recipient relations. Presumed consent would designate everyone as an organ donor unless the individual or the family of the deceased opted out; the current system is just the opposite, harvesting organs only from people who opt in to organ donation.
The task force advised against the switch supported by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the British Medical Association (BMA), and several physician groups. Nevertheless, Brown continues to support a presumed consent system. “While they are not recommending the introduction of a presumed consent system, as I have done, I am not ruling out a further change in the law,” he said [The Guardian].
The U.K. has one of Europe’s lowest rates of organ donation. Of an estimated 8,000 people on waiting lists for organ transplants, only about 3,000 receive transplants every year, and 1,000 die while waiting for a transplant. Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA’s Head of Science and Ethics, said presumed consent was not a panacea, but was likely to result in a 10 to 15 per cent increase in donated organs, if sufficient surgeons, intensive care beds and transplant coordinators were put in place. She said it would also encourage families to discuss their views, and make their wishes clear before death: “We know that the majority of the population want to be organ donors, but only 25 per cent are on the register” [Times Online].

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