I continue to build my platform for a 2004 election run.
Plank #13: Default Organ Donation
I will introduce legislation to make organ donation opt-out rather than opt-in. I.e., under the current scheme in most if not all jurisdictions, your opinion doesn't actually matter, and your next of kin get to decide whether or not to donate your organs, and the presumption is that they don't consent.
I will ask Congress and the states to change the law so that a statement by you concerning the donation of organs is binding (e.g. in the state's driver's license database) and in the absence of such a provision, the presumption is that you consent to donation of all useful organs. The next of kin will have no say.
Because this constitutes a government taking, your estate will receive compensation for harvested organs--not doctors, not hospitals, and not organ banks, as is the current practice. (Obviously the payment chain for organ transplantation is complex; this is a grotesque simplification that will require a lot of bureaucratic rule-making.)
Basically, there is too much public good, too many lives that can be improved or saved with donated organs to be squeamish or tentative when it comes to harvesting. We have to recognize the legitimate choice of some not to donate, for personal or religious reasons, there's no doubt about that. But once you are dead, your property interest in your body is reduced, as is your heirs', much as states can require that the body be embalmed, so it is reasonable and appropriate to establish a legal presumption in favor of donation.
Is this insensitive to grief-stricken mothers and widows? No. I categorically refuse to give any credence to any objection to organ donation that could not be claimed beforehand. All my approach requires is that you make a checkmark on the form when applying for your driver's license. If you don't, it's reasonable for the state to assume that you don't care, and since your corpse can do someone else some good, we're going to err on that side of it.
(Also, people should adopt more children.)
Posted by Greg at November 19, 2002 3:47 PM