Recently it was reported that Alex Salmond is ready to give his support to an opt-out system when it comes to organ donation.
IndyGal had a motion successfully carried on this at SNP conference. I don't do apologies for puns, but this is an issue that is close to my heart.
Whether the system is opt-out or opt-in, as a country we are taking a position on the issue. I think we should have as default the view that people would want to take the option to save lives. If they do not wish to do this though, they can register to not have their organs harvested.
I've also been asked for Islamic viewpoints on organ donation. See here, here and here.
Have you ever heard of cellular memory? OK, maybe not relevant, but fascinating. Apparently patients receiving donor organs report slight changes in personality which are possibly connected with the 'imprint' of the donor. There was a wife who volunteered to give her dying husband one of her kidneys (they were compatible). The husband, like most men, hated shopping and being dragged round the supermarket. A few weeks after the op they were in Sainsbury's doing the weekend shop when he turned to her and said, 'You know, I'm actually quite enjoying this....'. Then he started getting interested in baking. 'I really feel like making something', and gardening, which before the op he had really hated, but was one of his wife's great pleasures. They were a very close couple, but they said the experience made them even closer. Scientists are exploring if there is part of 'memory' which resides in all the cells of the body, and not just the brain. May have theological implications; don't know. But perhaps some comfort to the bereaved to know this? Or perhaps the opposite?
Posted by: veritas | 13 November 2007 at 10:49 AM
Salaams Osama,
Allah bless you for these links. I've used them on my chaplaincy page.
Insha Allah, all is well with you.
Abdur Rahman
Posted by: Abdur Rahman | 13 November 2007 at 02:53 PM
People's bodies are their own, not the State's. I actually think it's morally repugnant to take a position where the State claims ownership of a body - the elderly, the infirm, the mentally ill, etc. - before the grieving relatives. How utterly vile and disgusting. It's a curious religion that takes a comfortable position on that, I have to say.
Is this unrelated to the fact Alex Salmond is morbidly obese and is a surefire certainty for major healthcare in years to come? How perverse that this bloated loudmouth should complain long and hard about the erosion of civil liberties from Westminster whilst advocating the State seizure of human beings after death. Absolutely sickening.
Posted by: Ted | 15 November 2007 at 10:21 AM
Perhaps there could be a no-give-no-get system, i.e. where people who have previously put themselves on the organ donor register go to the front of the queue if they need to receive an organ.
Posted by: Philip Hunt | 17 November 2007 at 05:53 PM
Aye, and let's bring in a system where you can't get an operation unless you've already given blood and to hell with any medical, ethical or religious objections you may have.
Posted by: Ted | 19 November 2007 at 10:34 AM