Battle
Over
“Presumed
Consent” in Illinois
I am sympathetic to the motivation of those who argue that each of us
should be presumed by law to want to be an organ donor–increasing the
organ supply–but not the method. Known as “presumed consent,”
these laws assume silence means consent, making each of us potential
donors unless we explicitly opt out–instead of, as now, allowing us to
opt in (although family can consent to organ donation even if the
deceased did not fill out a donor card, and can usually veto donations
if they did ). From the story:
Presumed consent eliminates the need for people to
elect to become potential organ donors. Everyone is considered a
potential donor, and anyone who objects can opt out. Historically,
countries that adopt the policy find only a small percent of the
population opts out. When the policy was adopted in Belgium in 1987,
less than 2 percent of the population opted out. Risinger, R-Peoria,
said people concerned about individual rights clearly have the right to
refuse to allow any organ transplantation after their death. He said
his legislation is not in final form, and he expects it will be refined
with additional input from the public and the medical community. He is
planning to hold public hearings on the bill.
The USA is not Europe. We are more individualistic here, and
besides, I can think of few things that will sow distrust in the health
care system more than presumed consent. Think about it: We
already have bioethicists advocating for futile care theory, that is
the right to refuse wanted life sustaining treatment based on quality
of life judgmentalism, resource allocation, or both. Add in the
motive for taking organs to this volatile field–and wary families will
become even less trusting, and medical issues will become even more
likely to end up in court. Square that if we ever enact explicit
health care rationing, or redefine death to include a diagnosis of
PVS–as many luminaries in the transplant field advocate. Indeed,
I am convinced that with presumed consent, the entire field could
become discredited in the people’s minds, whether or not the actual
conduct of the transplant professionals warranted the cynicism.
If doctors ever start taking organs without explicit permission–even if
allowed by law–there will be hell to pay. And the biggest victim will
be transplant medicine itself and the tens of thousands of sick people
whose lives are renewed by this important area of medicine. In
fact, if laws like this pass, I believe we might even end up with fewer
organs, while unquestionably reap much more arguing.
Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source:
Secondhand Smoke
Publish
Date:
March
4,
2010
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