We have a "free at the point of delivery" National Health Service and for good reason - a healthy population is a productive population, and that reaps benefits for all. That does not however extend to an area of our health that influences our ability to eat and drink and that when not maintained adequately can lead to cancer. Care of the mouth and teeth should be brought fully under the National Health Service and free at the point of delivery, sweeping away the often prohibitive costs for the poorest in society and ensuring that our world class health care system continues to beat it's international counterparts in keeping the nation in good health.
An opt-out system will be adopted for organ donation upon death, ensuring that more healthy organs are available to those in desparate need.
@PaulJRobinson - about 10 years ago
Agreed although I would like to amend the wording from 'desparate need' which implies organs will be used only to go into other people in order to keep them alive. Shouldn't this PR also allow organs/bodies to be used for medical research and help save thousands more lives by assisting in the search for cures?
with kind regards, Paul Robinson
about.me/pauljrobinson
On 1 February 2014 20:45, philipjohn [email protected] wrote:
You can merge this Pull Request by running
git pull https://github.com/philipjohn/manifesto organ-donation
Or view, comment on, or merge it at:
https://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/90 Commit Summary - Organ donation opt-out
File Changes - M health.mdhttps://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/90/files#diff-0(2)
Patch Links: - https://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/90.patch - https://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/90.diff
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/90 .
We have a "free at the point of delivery" National Health Service and for good reason - a healthy population is a productive population, and that reaps benefits for all. That does not however extend to an area of our health that influences our ability to eat and drink and that when not maintained adequately can lead to cancer. Care of the mouth and teeth should be brought fully under the National Health Service and free at the point of delivery, sweeping away the often prohibitive costs for the poorest in society and ensuring that our world class health care system continues to beat it's international counterparts in keeping the nation in good health.
An opt-out system will be adopted for organ donation upon death, ensuring that more organs are available for clinical and research purposes.
@frankieroberto - about 10 years ago
I agree with this in principle, but having read into this a bit before, it seems that the most significant issue affecting organ donation rates isn't consent, but other issues such as planning and discussing it with patients and their families in hospitals (as most donation happens from patients already in hospital, rather than unexpected accidents).
One thing that could be looked at instead is not allowing parents or next-of-kin to 'override' the expressed wishes of a person to allow their organs to be donated (which can happen at the moment). However it might be better instead to work on ways to reduce these conflicts instead (e.g. through greater discussion and public understanding).
👍
Also, agreed with @frankieroberto that overriding the wishes of the deceased should not be allowed.
This is a really interesting post from GDS on their findings of how organ donation options were presented: https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2013/08/06/organ-donation-and-ab-testing/
@philipjohn - about 10 years ago
"most significant issue affecting organ donation rates isn't consent, but other issues such as planning and discussing it with patients and their families in hospitals" Wouldn't that be covered by the default being opt-in? Or are you saying many families are explicitly refusing organ donation at/around the time of death?
I'm also unsure if there is a need for the 'overriding' bit. If we take a default opt-in approach, we're assuming everyone is okay with that unless that specify otherwise. Therefore, by overriding their wishes the family would be opting FOR organ donation. Now that I've typed that out, I guess it still applies.... we don't want families to say "have their organs" if the person already said no.
I'm unsure of wording here though, any suggestions?
@PaulJRobinson - about 10 years ago
@philipjohn yes I think that's the key issue: individuals who've given consent to organ donation haven't discussed their wishes with family, and doctors expecting to use those organs are forbidden from doing so by family at the bed-side. At least that is the anecdotal evidence I've heard: don't know how often that's actually happened.
I think that preventing the wishes of the individual from being overidden, whether the system remains as it is, or becomes a 'default to opt-in' system, is key. As you say it's not right for families to start giving organs away if that isn't what the individual wanted.
with kind regards, Paul Robinson
about.me/pauljrobinson
On 4 February 2014 18:03, philipjohn [email protected] wrote:
"most significant issue affecting organ donation rates isn't consent, but other issues such as planning and discussing it with patients and their families in hospitals" Wouldn't that be covered by the default being opt-in? Or are you saying many families are explicitly refusing organ donation at/around the time of death?
I'm also unsure if there is a need for the 'overriding' bit. If we take a default opt-in approach, we're assuming everyone is okay with that unless that specify otherwise. Therefore, by overriding their wishes the family would be opting FOR organ donation. Now that I've typed that out, I guess it still applies.... we don't want families to say "have their organs" if the person already said no.
I'm unsure of wording here though, any suggestions?
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/90#issuecomment-34088264 .
We have a "free at the point of delivery" National Health Service and for good reason - a healthy population is a productive population, and that reaps benefits for all. That does not however extend to an area of our health that influences our ability to eat and drink and that when not maintained adequately can lead to cancer. Care of the mouth and teeth should be brought fully under the National Health Service and free at the point of delivery, sweeping away the often prohibitive costs for the poorest in society and ensuring that our world class health care system continues to beat it's international counterparts in keeping the nation in good health.
An opt-out system will be adopted for organ donation upon death, ensuring that more organs are available for clinical and research purposes.
The organ donation wishes of the deceased will not be permitted to be overridden by family members.
The OpenPolitics Manifesto
@philipjohn - about 10 years ago