tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381465.post21246510291200634..comments2008-01-13T22:29:05.850-08:00Wesley J. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00087063614354714652wjs@wesleyjsmith.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381465.post-19993424424527156812008-01-13T22:29:00.000-08:002008-01-13T22:29:00.000-08:00Check the comments left in reaction to this and related stories on the <I>Telegraph</I> website. They are running very heavily against presumed consent. Many posters note that the British government could instead be doing much more to encourage opt-in.<BR/><BR/>Others raise the question of why everyone gets paid for the organs <I>but</I> the donor. Some point to the provision to score doctors and hospitals on making organs available and see ominous possibilities (as I do). Will doctors who are supposed to try to treat and heal the sick instead look at them as a potential source of points from government donation watchdogs?<BR/><BR/>Governments, even the best-intentioned ones, are not exactly well known for adherence to high standards of documentation and execution of rules. Under presumed consent, abuses will certainly happen.<BR/><BR/>The elephant in the room is the global black market in organs. After presumed consent passes, if the National Health Service has excess organs with no suitable recipients within Britain, what will happen to these? Where will they end up, and who will profit? (And remember the scandal in 1999 over hospitals there having kept tissue from dead children for years?) It was easy to ignore this issue when South American newspapers carried hysterical stories of children's carcasses found in dumps minus their organs, but the recent news from China about harvesting those from executed prisoners should raise concern. Brazil tried presumed consent but had to scrap it over this and the population's widespread distrust of the medical system there.<BR/><BR/>We'll see if citizens across the pond get riled enough about Brown's proposal. I suspect, however, that it will be business as usual and will become law. Then it will spread here. And I'll make doggone sure I opt out. I don't want anyone else's organs either!K-Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06339236605900186222noreply@blogger.com