I've often wondered about donor cards and the ridiculous system of carrying a card to say you wish your organs to be donated if you die. However if I understand it correctly the doctors still have to get the next of kins agreement.
Why can't some government bring in a system where if you don't wish your organs to be donated you carry a card otherwise your body is without question used as a source of supply, next of kin being kept well out of the equasion.

Because we don't trust some of the medical profession who go around borrowing bits from babies for research without bothering to ask.

These are also the people who referred to my mother, who'd been dead for less than an hour, as an 'it' in my presence.

I think many people don't entirely trust the medical profession as a whole, and certainly don't feel respected by the profession. Individual doctors, yes, but the profession, maybe not.

Until the medical profession regains that trust as a whole there will be a reluctance for many people to believe what's said to them, and certainly I'd prefer to have the 'checks and balances' system in place to make sure that my wishes are followed through after my death.

I don't want to be a donor after death - I carried a donor card for many years but the experiences above put me off. I know that this is selfish - but I would be the first to sign up for a 'hands off' card if they were introduced in this way. But the thing that would worry me is the possibility that such cards would get 'lost' in transit and due to the check and balance of the next of kin being removed people's wishes might be simply ignored.

Joe

Joe, there is no excuse for the ignorance of the doctor who said that about your Mother.
For anyone to approach you just after the death of a loved one, and ask if they can take away parts of them is most of the time going to be met with a refusal.
I always used to carry a card, but more often than not it was in another jacket, so I stopped bothering with it.
We now have in place so many information checks on computers that surely there has to be a way of registering your desire to give or not to give your organs after death, then one simple log into your name and National insurance number would give the doctors the information they need.
owdlad.

I think provided that I could trust the medics and the support personnel, I'd have no issues with the scheme - but I'd definitely want some sort of check and balance in there.

I'd love to be able to trust the medical profession and infrastructure in the UK but it scares me - my own GP is a total angel - but the systems in place worry me.

Case in point - I recently had some blood tests. After two or three weeks I'd had no results and so I popped in to the surgery. Oh yes, results came back a fortnight ago, but as they were all clear we don't tell you. That's the system.

Fortunately I hadn't been worrying - but had I been I'd have been as angry as hell!

Individuals can be amazing people, but if the systems aren't just as amazing the whole thing will collapse. That's what worries me.

Joe

I have always carried donor cards with me. As far as I am concerned, once I'm gone they can have whatever they want!! I did used to have a Humane Research Donor Card too. This stated that parts of my body could be used for medical research afetr my death. Unfortunatly, I lost it. Does anyone know where Ican get a new one please?

a "donor card" is now integrated with the new style driving licences. you sign the form when yyou get your licence, then forget about it, they don't.

If you've signed up with your driving licence, do they still ask your next of kin too?

I have a donor card, but my parents are completely against it, so hopefully they will be out of the country when I drop dead.

It seems daft that I can't decide what happens to my body once I'm dead.

I'm not so sure that all feeling leaves the body when the Drs says we are dead, How do they know I hear that time is so short that organs are taken with haste and no anesthetic. How do the medical profession know that inside someone may be screaming with pain. Wouldn't risk this with anyone I love, so I would say no.

Hazel

There is a web site for anyone who is interested


http://www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/default.jsp

Hazel, would you say no even if organ donation was what the person wanted?

Your viewpoint illustrates my concern about asking next of kin. It's very important to me that my body is used in whatever way is useful to the medical profession and I really wouldn't want anyone else to decide against that for their own personal reasons. I've never really discussed this properly with my partner and family and made sure they understand how important it is to me.

Oh, this is going to be a jolly Friday evening's conversation... :rolleyes:

I'm not sure, if it involved my sons, that I could say yes.
So I am perhaps not the best person for you to ask this question.
After a lifetime of caring for them I would feel I was failing them in the last thing I could do.
Bit morbid isn't it but I;m not convinced about the lack of anesthetics
Hazel