Today I really will not rant, though this is something else about which I am passionate.
I've written about organ donation on here before, but one of the great things to happen (relative to your views on the issue of course, but in my opinion it is great) since that time is that the UK parliament has passed a law to introduce an "opt-out" system for organ donation. Naturally, as is customary of our time, I shared the article on my Facebook page with words of celebration for the lives that this will save.
A friend has pointed out that very few people die on the waiting list in comparison to the number of people this new law will affect, so I Googled. These stats are from the Guardian in September 2017, so are slightly out of date by now, but they were the best I could find:
As well as the 457 people who died last year while on the transplant waiting list, a further 875 were taken off it, mainly because of ill health, with many dying shortly afterwards. As of last week there were 6,414 people in need of a new organ on the UK transplant waiting list.4 Sep 2017
To me, that is too many, though to me 1 person dying when we have the resource to stop it would be too many quite frankly, though it could be worse. In America one person dies approximately every 20 minutes waiting for an organ, so small mercies I guess.
Like with blood donation, my very logical side likes to ask "Would you be happy to receive it?" If the answer is yes, which it is, then I don't see why my answer to giving that donation should be any different. I tried to explain this to my mother, who you would assume would be used to me by now, as just an extension of my recycling obsession. My kidneys are going to do *nothing* that is good for anyone if I'm in the ground or otherwise, so why would I not want whoever my next of kin was to say to the doctors, if someone can use it, take it. I'd much rather the doctor be in a position to say, well that's a kind offer _____, but there's no one on the waiting list than have 457 people die in a year because no one wanted to think about signing up to the register.
This is my big sticking point: very often people either don't want to think about it or they don't care. That's not to say that they don't care about the 6'414 people on the waiting list it's that they don't care. They have no issue with donating their organs, but they don't feel strongly enough about it to go out of their way to sign up to the register. It drives me up the wall.
I get that it's a horrendous conversation. I recently got a pension statement which stated that I hadn't designated my next of kin who would receive the money if I died before getting it (really depressing though) so had to speak to my mum about putting her down as my person. And what I wanted her to do with the money. It was not a great conversation and I didn't even get into the whole living will thing of please don't leave me on a ventilator if there are no signs of brain activity, but my mother is the type to call it Blackpool illuminations if there are lights on in rooms you aren't in, so I'm not too worried about that one (Mum, if you read this, I am joking, but seriously, off switch, please). I don't know if it's a society thing or a humanity thing that talking about living wills and everything is just branded as morbid and we shy away from it, but really I would prefer to make that the legal stipulation, rather than a blanket opt out system.
If we all had to answer questions regarding our care at the end of our life, since that can happen so quickly with an accident, then our upset relatives wouldn't have to make those decisions in what can already be the most upsetting period of their lives.
Since that's not going to happen though, I'm going to celebrate this as a bit of a win.
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