My heart will go on?

...and I'm back again!

Hi everybody!

So, I saw a news story yesterday on the BBC News that made me absolutely furious.

Mother denied daughter's organs - Saturday, 12 April 2008 15:00 news.bbc.co.uk
Click on the hyperlink above if you want to know more about it, but here are the salient points.

1. Mother urgently needs a kidney transplant due to diabetes induced organ failure.
2. Daughter agrees to be a living donor (i.e. donate a kidney whilst still alive).
   
3. Daughter suffers a coughing fit and dies.
4. Daughter's kidneys go to two strangers on the transplant waiting list.

To be fair, the formal process of the daughter becoming a living donor had not begun at the time of death.

However, if it were me and my organs (helpfully ignoring the fact for one moment that I would be too dead to express my view point), I would say either my relative gets the required organ, or none of my organs can be used for transplant. At all.

I think it seems fair that in exchange that the offer to help strangers with a donation of my heart, lungs, corneas, liver, pancreas and one of my kidneys, I should be able to help a loved one by deciding where one of my organs go.

I'm going to try and find a donor card (as shockingly I'm not on the organ donor list), but alter it, so that it covers this eventuality. It's going to say something along the lines of:

"I donate any of my organs, as long as any of my close family who require organs for a medical condition receive organs first. If not, I do not offer any of my organs."

I have a feeling that as the rules currently stand, then they won't accept any of my organs. I don't think that's fair at all. They will lose out badly. I think this could dent the popularity of organ donation (and they are extremely short on organs) by not seeming to be a fair system.

I understand the counter-argument that if you allow people to decide where their organs go completely you could end up with serious problems (e.g "I want my organs to only go to people of this religious group/racial group/sexual orientation), but I think this is a long way off helping your relatives first (which should give you the best chance for a successful transplant anyway, as you've got a closer tissue match).

I'm really upset and worked up about this. If anyone thinks they can convince me otherwise and change my opinion, I would be gratefulto hear the arguments. I think you'd struggle to change my mind though.

Your furiously

AcidCat