4 of 12

Disagree

Write now Article Tools

There is one good reason behind making organ donation an opt-out of program instead of an opt-in program. That is to increase the availability of donated organs. It seems a no-brainer. However, to every problem there is an answer that is obvious, simple, and wrong.

Not everybody is eligible to donate organs. Some diseases exclude a person from donating organs forever; for instance, if you've had any kind of hepatitis, even if you have been well for years, you are not supposed to donate blood, and would not be eligible for organ donation. Let us not even mention HIV.

People who have lived in certain parts of the world are also not eligible to donate blood or organs due to the risk of transmission of other diseases. For instance, if you've lived in Europe during the 80s you could be at risk for Jacob Kreutfeldt's variant disease (aka mad cow disease) and thus should not donate tissues.

What is important to understand is that many of these conditions cannot be easily tested for, some, like the mad cow disease, cannot be tested for at all. On many occasions results would only be available after the organs had been harvested and transplanted. To make it more complicated, recipients of the organs would be immunosuppressed to avoid rejection of the organ, and thus even more susceptible to an infection acquired from the transplanted organ.

People who donate blood are asked not only if they have a history of any of these diseases, but also whether they engage in high risk behavior. You would be surprised at what constitutes high risk behavior: Even having had a tattoo done less than six months before donation excludes you from donating blood, since you could conceivably have acquired hepatitis from the tattoo and tests might still be negative.

The take home message is that having prospective donors opt-in would help keep our organ supply chain safer. Why, because people would not have to explain why the opt-out of the program. Some of these conditions or behaviors that exclude you, are socially embarrassing like intravenous drug use, or trading sex for drugs, and people in general do not like to admit to it. Having to opt-out would often result in a follow-up question; Why? And even though an "It's none of your business" may be the right answer, it is probably better to avoid those situations.

On the other hand, increased education, and advertising of the opportunities for organ donation may achieve better and safer results.

Learn more about this author, Pedro Miranda.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Organ donation registers should move from an opt-in to an opt-out system?
We want to hear your view. Write now!