Organ Banks

External Since: Sep 10, 2007 Posts: 29

In article <wNc3JRhz68iHFwwb.DeleteThis@meden.invalid>, Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
> According to radio news reports here the permission of the family (next
> of kin?) is still required.
>
It's closer to the "required request" system that was under
discussion for a while. viz : the doctors treating someone who is
to-all-intents-and-purposes dead MUST ask the next of kin, if available,
for permission to remove any usable organs from their body. "Their body"
obviously referring to the body in the bed, not the body sobbing in the
chair next to the machine that goes "ping". The body of a deceased person
belongs to their next of kin, not to the deceased person (how can a
deceased person own property?), and not to the state. Which is why "living
wills", donor cards, etc have always been no more than a guideline in
Britain.
Someone is obviously chewing over the idea of assigning the
ownership of the meat to the state, but thinks that it would be a
politically "difficult" sale.
Veering back to Known Space, I don't recall it having been
explicitly mentioned, but it is implicit in the whole "Organ Banks" issue
that on death one's body becomes the property of the state. Can anyone
remember this being mentioned (with respect to Earth ; I do recall it
being explicit in the mind of the Implementation boss in AGfE)?

--
Aidan Karley,
Written at Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:21 GMT, but posted later.
"Please turn your monitors off when you leave the building. Not only does
it save power, but the flickering of the monitors annoys the pterosaur."

External Since: Jan 15, 2008 Posts: 9

In article <fmgas3$tp$2@reader2.panix.com>, David Lesher writes:

>Donation Automatic In UK
>
>LONDON - Britain's prime minister is calling for a sweeping change to the
>country's organ donation system, but the plan isn't sitting well with
>patients' rights groups.
>
>In an opinion piece in The Sunday Telegraph, Gordon Brown calls for an
>"opt-out" system for organ donation, in which consent is assumed unless
>people explicitly register disapproval.

I believe that this is a good time to mention Harry Harrison's short
story, "The Ghoul Squad", which portrays a society with an "opt-out"
requirement.

Of course, since organs only have a limited shelf-life, you need to have
your evidence of having opted out with you when you snuff it.

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
2 + 2 = 5, for sufficiently large values of 2