An Ontario member of parliament recently introduced a bill to allow presumed consent of organ donations, but it was voted down. Our premier, Dalton McGuinty, said that Ontarians are not ready for that now. However, presumed consent is the law in many European countries and the stigma associated with organ donation no longer exists there. This law means that you don't have to opt-in to give your consent for your organs to be used if there is a medical need, and that leads to much shorter waiting lists for organ transplants and many lives saved. If people don't want to have their organs used, they can opt-out of the law.
I think the idea that we are not ready for presumed consent comes from really superstitious notions about the body after death. This kind of thinking says that you should keep your body whole because your soul or consciousness is still associated with it. Well I say it's going to decay anyway, so you might as well help someone else out. Any thoughts?
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3 comments:
i think organ donation is cool and good and let's go for it; but body for science less cool. especially body for that creepy show bodyworks.
but i agree w/ assumed consent
I am fully behind assumed consent. And what's wrong with bodies for science? If they want they can harvest my organs (if any are still worth anything), and then give what's left of me to science for med students to practice on.
I mean really, I'm dead, what do I care? I believe consciousness can go on, maybe. I definitely believe our energy goes on in some form, but I certainly don't think our ... essence is in any way tied to our decomposing body.
I think the traditional ideas regarding this come from Christianity. Isn't there something in there about how when the judgement day comes all the believers will be raised? I think being raised has something to do with going back to god the way you came, and tampering with the body will hinder this process.
Also, God selected burial at Moses' death, so that's pretty much the act to follow.
That's a sound analysis of why we think that harvesting organs is unnatural.
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