ORGAN DONATION

Organ donation

Organ donation

1. Many people believe that Australia should adopt 'presumed consent. Explain what 'presumed consent' is, and discuss arguments for and against changing the law. Finally, give recommendation.

Presumed consent, a policy that assumes an individual is willing to donate his or her organs upon death unless otherwise specified, is an ideal solution to the growing need for organ donors. Presumed consent can save many lives by improving the quantity and quality of the organ pool, guaranteeing that an individual's final wishes are granted and also alleviate the burden family members face while making heart-breaking decisions for their loved ones.

The first claim I plan to pursue is that presumed consent is better than xenotransplantation increasing the number of available organs. I will develop this idea by showing that there are too many problems with the technology, that even if it is a fix for the future, it does not help us now. The second claim deals with why presumed consent is the most logical action. First, it protects human rights—the person who died as well as his or her family. Second, a national plan could be set up and made to work quickly, and third, that it is more ethical than offering people money or other incentives for donating.

Australia's low organ donation rate has led to a shortage of organs. In 2002, the average wait for organs varied from 1.2 years for lungs to 3.8 years for kidneys. In 2003, there were 635 transplant recipients from cadaveric organ donors.

The transplant recipient survival rate in Australia is high. It can be assumed that if there were an increase in the rates of organ donation it should be possible to continue the high success rate. However, this requires sufficient infrastructure to cope with an increase in organ supply and transplant, discussed later in this paper.

A contributing factor to high transplant success in Australia is patient access to post transplantation immunosuppressive drugs. Under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), immunosuppressive drugs are subsidised and affordable for the transplant patient. Elsewhere in the world the same drugs may cost more. For example, in the US, these drugs cost around US$600 -$1000 per month.

Australia has high utilisation of donated organs. Despite low organ donation rates and physical impediments, such as geographical isolation and large distances between hospitals, between 1 January 1995 and 31 December 1997, 241 people received lung transplants in Australia (4.6/million population/year). This compares favourably with the corresponding rates in the United States (3.6/million population /year) and Europe (3.1/million population/year).

The current system in Australia for donating organs is a variation of the opt in system. Persons wishing to donate in Australia are not required to register their wish to donate, although they can do so by a variety of methods, for example in some States registering intent on drivers' licences. They need only to have expressed to someone their wish to donate. If no wish has been made the deceased's family is consulted about whether they believed the deceased would have wanted to ...