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France Begins Opt-Out Organ Donation (theoutline.com)
Laura June, reporting for The Outline: France began to use a new opt-out system of organ donation on Jan. 1, making it one of a large number of European nations that now use a "presumed consent" system. This means that any adult who dies will now donate their organs by default, regardless of their survivors' wishes, unless they have signed a refusal registry in advance. The new law gets around what has historically been a stumbling block for organ donation: the surviving families of the deceased. A survey in France previously showed that while up to 80 percent of the population was in favor of donating their own organs, about 40 percent of families refuse when pressed to make the choice.
The assumption is that only vital organs needed to help a living, sick person survive are harvested. But is that the case? Does the system define which organs may be harvested and for what purpose? Can one's entire body be donated for the purpose of research or training? Is the system truly altruistic or are there people profiting from the practice? Who decided what the rules are?
This gets very, very tricky. I don't think presumed consent in this particular area bothers me per se, but I can imagine a lot of other issues where presumed consent would scare the living daylights out of me. Sounds like a very slippery slope.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
The fact is in an ER you don't necessarily get the opportunity to have a 2nd opinion about you being pronounced legally dead.
If you are that far gone, you are likely better off dead anyway. It is a common scene in movies for the hero to flat-line, be revived with CPR and/or defib, and then be running, jumping and doing gymnastics a few minutes later. That is BS. Most people given CPR/defib don't survive or only survive for a few miserable hours or days, and even those that last longer usually have a very poor quality of life. They often are confined to bed or a wheelchair and often suffer brain damage.
People that work in ERs, or once worked there, are the most likely to ask for "Do Not Resuscitate" or DNR orders when they are hospitalized.
I am actually amazed by the comments here.
I live in Austria and we have had opt out for a veeery long time and it is no issue at all.
We only use the nickname "organ donors" for motorbikers as a joke.
You can still choose not to donate and can communicate that intent in various ways(also informally).
Examples:
* register in a government database that is restricted to only this opt outs
* carry a signed piece of paper that says something like "i dont want to donate my organs"
* your family "testifies" that you wish your organs not to be donated
A few comments that i read here stated that people are concerned about doctors not helping a patient because his organs can be used as transplants.
There are two arguments that might help alleviate your concerns:
1: Because of the opt out system there are a lot of potential donors. This means there is no need to create artificial supply.
2: Patients are only considered for organ extraction if doctors determine through a fixed set of rules and procedures that they are brain dead.
Furthermore, the transplant receiver is determined by a waiting list created by fixed rules and managed by the independent non-profit Eurotransplant https://www.eurotransplant.org/.
I could see that problem in the US, in France, there isn't really a financial incentive to the hospital to harvest body parts.
Also, the stories about people waking in the morgue are lovely tales from the crypt, but have little to do with reality, and have not had for at least 100 years now.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I could see that problem in the US, in France, there isn't really a financial incentive to the hospital to harvest body parts.
Also, the stories about people waking in the morgue are lovely tales from the crypt, but have little to do with reality, and have not had for at least 100 years now.
Nope, actually, it's just a lot rarer now--in the first world, anyway, and the general expectation now is that it means somebody botched their job. I think the last case was ~25 years ago, was a little old lady, and she was kicking around long enough afterwards to get interviewed. (I didn't catch much about the case, except apparently the fact that they put her in the freezer saved her life.)
Incidentally, it's cases like that which get brought up when somebody suggests being less careful in checking.
As for the issue with brain death--I think the paper discussing the problems getting noticed in correctly determining the amount of brain activity was published in 2015. I would very much enjoy reading it, but it's very much a current and ongoing problem in neuro.
As for financial incentives in France--can't tell you, I don't read French and any reports that go into the inner workings of France's organ donation system are almost certainly going to be in French. I can, however, with great confidence state that both the US and France have them as being supposed to be donations--because both countries are in pretty explicit agreement on payments being unethical--meaning that no financial incentive should exist, period, in either country.