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Dead people don’t need organs
Friday August 1 2008 By Tracey Duguay, RANDOM PASSAGES When you’re dead, you’re dead. Depending on your religious or philosophical beliefs, your “soul” may transcend to another place but your body is put into the ground or a furnace. It’s not a pretty thought, but that’s how it is.
And, since this is the ugly reality, then why are people so uneasy with the thought of donating organs when they or a loved one die?
It’s always been a pretty easy decision in my mind. Although I am guilty of not immediately filling in this section on my driver’s license or indicating it in a living will.
I find comfort in the thought that when my time is up, a now useless-to-me organ can help save someone’s life.
NDP MPPs Peter Kormos and Cheri DiNova plan to introduce a private member’s bill in the fall aimed at easing the backlog of people waiting for donated organs in Ontario.
Building on the concept of “presumed consent,” the bill would make it legal to harvest the organs of any person who dies, provided they didn’t opt out ahead of time.
Kormos has tried twice in the past to get such a bill passed. Surveys indicate many Ontario residents see the value of organ donation but aren’t comfortable with such a totalitarianism approach.
Statistics peg around 1,700 people waiting for organs each year in Ontario alone, 4,000 nationwide. Around 140 to 250 die before they receive suitable replacements for their organs. Those that don’t die are hooked up to machines or ingesting massive amounts of drugs, all the while waiting for the phone to ring.
Take away the pathos and ethos and it won’t take long for a rational mind to add up the mounting health care costs that are borne by a prolonged wait for a new organ.
Medical technology and techniques are a wonderful thing but the longer someone is kept alive, especially at a diminished quality of life, the more it costs. And, if there isn’t a donated organ at the end of the wait, these costs can be for naught.
In a CBC interview following the MPPs announcement about the proposed bill, a transplant specialist from Harvard University said presumed consent won’t matter because Canada’s organ donation system is a mess.
Until the system is reformed,  he fears many of the body parts will be wasted because medical professionals won’t know where they’re needed.
While I don’t usually agree with the concept of presumed consent, I think there is merit in this case. With an effective publicity campaign, a long phase-in period, it could go a long way in easing the organ donor waiting lists.
And while all this is going on, it also gives health care professionals enough time to overhaul the system in order to ensure this very precious gift doesn’t get wasted.
After all, if it was your child, spouse, sibling, parent or other loved one whose life was being threatened, wouldn’t you want someone to help?

Tracey Duguay is the managing editor of the Orangeville Banner.

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