Organ Donation Should be an Opt-Out System

Interesting debate! Opt in and out reasonable.

Thank you for this well thought out debate. My Dad was lucky to receive a kidney last fall and he is a new man! I'm in the process of writing a lens about his experience. I hope that the more organ donation is talked about, the more people will do there research and sign up to donate.

My sisters and I talk about it on occasion. Half-jokingly, it usually ends up being something like, "When I die, cut me open and give anything that works to anyone that can use it (including science, if they want it.) After that, burn me up and do what you wish! I'm getting a new body!"

I don't mind what they do with my body once I'm dead, but I think live organ donation (in cases of suspected "brain death" brings in a conflict of interest with those whose sole purpose should be saving your life. The current issue of Discovery magazine has an amazing article about this issue.

This is a great conversation. I think we need to start with just more education and information being given about organ donation. Not enough people really understand the concept and that alone makes me sad.

I believe it's our responsibility to help those in need. When I've passed on, I do not need my organs and each organ donor can save up to 8 lives. To not donate organs is selfish. HOWEVER, I read statistics a few days ago that in countries that used OPT-OUT systems, the percentage of organ donors only rose by a few percentage points. Also remember that even if it is on your driver's license that you are an organ donor, your family has the right to reverse that decision in many states. Let your family know your wishes!

This is a very thought-provoking and well-written lens. I'd never really thought about this controversial issue at length. Prayers sent for your mother.

Thanks for sharing your opinion on this touchy subject. I cannot donate even if I wanted to...I have no organs that are good enough to transplant. This is a great, thought provoking lens and I thank you for bringing some light to the subject.

I've always had that box on my license checked to be an organ donor, but last month I also registered to be a bone marrow donor and a living organ donor. Now I don't have to die before saving a life :-)

I'm finding that I agree with you on a lot of topics! yet another wonderful lens you have here!

Very thought provoking, I love this lens. Angel Blessed.

Well done on a touchy topic! The poll would not load to let me say I already opted in.

As someone who worked as a prosthetic technician (making artificial body parts) and worked in ophthalmology for a decade (alongside eye surgeons who did corneal grafts) I had a very hard time choosing in your duel - and I couldn't pick. One false belief I hear often is, 'Oh, but you can make artificial eyes soon, right?' Here's the truth: prosthesis are not like depicted in 'The Six Million Dollar Man' or 'The Bionic Woman' or 'The Terminator' - we cannot mimic or make better anything that we have been born with. At ophthalmology seminars, promotion about eye bank donations were always spoken of (few people 'like' the idea of an ophthalmologist removing the eyeballs of a loved one soon after death - which is necessary to keep the organ viable for a patient to receive). All of this is just sooo traumatic for families. I honestly feel your point is well made, however, I feel the answer is more education about freely chosen donation. To have this automatically decided will upset people even more (even though I agree with the spirit of your work here). Very interesting and challenging topic, good for you to put it out there.

very important topic & debate. ~blessed~

Organ donation must be done to help needy person.

Great lens on an important subject, so here are some April Angel Blessings and I am featuring it on my lens "Go0d Lenses Deserve Angel Blessings"

I was on the donor list until I became ineligible. Your lens assumes everyone is eligible to donate. Do you want a transplant from someone who carries HIV? HTLV? If we go to an opt-out system, that is what some people will get.

Hmm, I've never thought about the concept of opt-out organ donation. In general, I like the idea because it removes the burden of decision making from family members who are grieving, and it would save a lot of lives. On the other hand, it does seem a little heavy handed to say you MUST give up your body parts upon death. Personally, I'm not planning on using mine after I die :-)

I've got an organ donor sticker on my driver's license, but I think it will still be grieving family members who will have to give permission when I die.

Excellent debate - Blessed by a Culture & Society Angel today.

Great topic.

I would never choose to donate organs, maybe I'm selfish or weak to let that happen.

Medical Technology has improved dramatically in the last few decades and the current system of laws needs to be updated. When cars where first made seatbelts came as an option. Thousands die each year waiting for heart,liver,lung, etc. Many of them are children. Most organs go to the grave. I was unaware of this until I started researching the subject. Without a liver transplant I will die. Did not ever think I would write these words, but that is the reality I now live with.

Medical Technology has advanced greatly during the last several decades and the current laws governing organ donation need to be updated. People keep talking about freedoms and rights. Everyone will still free to say no. Your organs are of no use to you once you are dead and just wind up in a plastic bag if you are embalmed or burned if you are cremated. I have enjoyed the last 50 years of life and now I spend my life taking medicine and waiting for the next doctors appointment. This has given me time to ask questions and research this subject. Bottom line is that too many people die waiting for a heart, lung,liver, etc...Check out the young faces on the 2011 Transplant calender. Maybe we should take out seatbelts and airbags and make then an option to be ordered like they used to be before Big Brother made them law. Let's take down this hurdle and let the doctors and nurses do what they do best, save lives.

This is a very thought-provoking lens. As a grateful recipient of a donor kidney I know exactly how important donors are (and I am, myself, a donor). But I believe choice is a fundamental right and while I believe everyone who can should be a donor, I know that some religions don't accept it and there may be other reasons. But I hope everyone who is able to WILL sign up to be an organ donor. The gift of life is of incalculable value and is a legacy profoundly to be desired, in my opinion. Blessed.

Got my cute little heart on my license. :) Hope it's not needed for a long time to come, but set now for the possibility of helping others.

I was so excited when I got my new license (cause I'm a bad-ass motorcycle babe now) that Texas is allowing you to choose to be an organ donor then. I have a cute little heart in the bottom corner of my license so they can tell right away that I'm theirs to do with as needed. (Although, I intend to be a good rider and keep my organs as long as I can!)

I think that a good way of going about it would be that anyone on the organ donor list should be given precedence over anyone not on the list. If you're happy to deny someone else life then why are you entitled to it? Might also jerk the apathetics out of their stupor.

Great debate...I think many people do not realize the importance of organ donation till someone close to them has been on a transplant list. Education is badly needed whether it be opt in or opt out!

Thank God...my 6 month old granddaughter just received a badly needed liver transplant! The waiting is so hard....Thank you for this lens!

Absolutely for this, way to go. The organs don't do a thing for you if you are dead. I know that Elizabeth Hasselbeck is a Republican is she a Christian? Because helping others to get of a Kidney Machine and prolong their lives is the Christian thing to do. It is the humane thing to do. You know those against are always change their minds once they need something. Nancy Reagan now says the stem cell research would be a good thing in light of what President Reagan went through before he died. Thanks for the lens.

Good lens...I have no problem with switching over to an opt-out program as long as people know they can opt out if they want to. Certainly no one I know has any objections to doing something that saves lives, religious or otherwise.

Great lens! Great cause!! 5* and fav.

Great lens!

Great debate! Great lens.

Nicely presented; I lensrolled it to my Adult to Adult Living Donor Liver Transplant lens, Thanks.

I've included your lens on the new one that I finished on Natasha Richardson becoming an organ donor.

Great debate! Of course the concept of free healthcare also goes hand in hand with this. What good would broad organ donation be if no one could afford the surgeries to use them?

Great lens and obviously very controversial! I hope you'll have time off from all your hard work for some trivia fun here!

There is a huge issue as people who say they would sign their donor card don't and then their family is left having to make the decision at a time when they are in too much pain to do so so they don't.

Seems like kind of a nonissue to me. I'm not seeing much here to persuade me that there's a need to change the system up that way.

Quite frankly I think the best solution to this whole thing would be to pay people to donate their organs.