Friday, February 11, 2011
Organ Donation - Presumed Consent or Not.
That was the best edition of Dragon's Eye that I have ever watched. No shouting down. Serious considered debate. The BBC has done some fantastic reseach. Up until now, I've thought the debate to be shallow and partial. Tonight the debate grew up. I suspect there are people who genuinely believed that presumed consent would produce more organs for donation are thinking again. And perhaps the converse.
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5 comments:
I really can't understand why people can't see the possible conflict between receiving the organ which is a devolved health issue and taking the organ which involves other more fundamental human rights principles. Any objective observer would also conclude that although the Attorney General might be a politician he was in fact acting in his capacity as a law officer when he raised questions about the LCO. A Labour Attorney General would have acted in exactly the same way. It was also clear from last night's programme that the key is organisation and intensive beds not presumed consent. It was also interesting to see that in Spain even with presumed consent the family quite rightly have the right to make the final decision. You are right Glyn it was a very impressive programme which showed the BBC at its best. It also showed again that the Tories are clearly missing a trick by not using the obvious abilities of Jonathan Morgan more.
Don't get me wrong, I think what the Attorney General is doing is perfectly right. Although, I've had discussions with colleagues, and we don't seem to think there are any HR issues. The point I think that was dissapointing, was how he issued the news to the (Welsh) Minister. Whether it was genuine or political we don't know.
I'll have to watch Dragons Eye now, I know the BBC have compared with Spain. But didn't quite understand the point they're trying to convey. Hopefully D.E will put if forward.
I'm currently 'for' it, and can't see problems against it. Will D.E tell me otherwise?.....
...I found it a quite odd Dragons Eye. The WAG are only asking for the powers... surely the time for this debate is once the LCO comes to light.
Furthermore, isn't it during the Measure stage that the Att-Gen should come in and say if it's illegal or not.
This ultimately what I hate about the LCO system. It asks about where the POWER should be. Nothing else. Yet the Att-Gen, D.E and London are second guessing what a Measure may include. It's just frustrating.
If a mechanism it put in (which on paper looks ok, and efficient) then people should operate it correctly. The current LCO system is a farce!
Jeff - As usual I agree with what you write. I have been dismayed by the dismissive remarks that have been made about Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General. I hought the contribution by the former Assembly Coucel General on the programme were badly misjudged.
Anon 1 - Not sure what you mean about @how he delivered the news'. I was quite close to this so how do you know what I don't know.
Anon 2 - The issue is whether the Assembly request for power is within an a devolved policy area. Dominic Grieve believes it may not be. The Programme speculated that this issue may have to be decided by the Supreme Court. Health is devolved while Human Rights is not. And this is an issue which would remain even if there had been a Yes vote in a referendum.
Opt out definitely involves a human rights issue.
Specifically, under opt out the transfer of property rights over one's organs to the state.
Why should anyone have to opt out from having their organs removed by the state? Unless of course the ownership status of their organs has shifted away from the individual to the state.
I've just had someone tell me that under 'corpse law' no body expressly owns a corpse and on that basis there's no transfer of body organ property rights.
So what about undead people who haven't opted out? People classified as brain dead but who still have a beating heart and their blood oxygenated?
Organ harvesting from such people often means anaesthetic is not used during organ harvesting. Do brain dead people feel pain? Their higher brain functions may be impaired but some of them feel pain for sure.
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