Body parts taken without consent

[Rupert_Baehr]

... To be fair, it would be better to adopt an "opt out" system, if you don't want your ogans harvested, then leave a card saying that, it would be much more viable, and more people would make the effort, perhaps?

 

That would probably provide a better supply of organs, but it would hardly be 'fair'.

 

In effect, the state would own your body.

 

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to educate people. To make them aware that they might need an organ and if they want to stand a reasonable chance of getting one, then there has to be an adequate supply.

 

I have been offered organ donation cards many times. I signed one when I was about 24. (Back when the bits might've been worth having )

 

Do UK driving licences have an 'organ donation' check box? (My last UK driving licence - which I had owned since they were first issued) was one of those big fold-out paper things with no photograph. AFAIR, it didn't address organ donation. My US driving licence has a check box confirming that I am an organ donor.

[JFKvsNixon]

No it is - in effect - a legal entity. It has assets and liabilities and is administered by the executors.

 

If a body did not belong to the estate, who would be responsible for burying it?

 

Many (if not most) wills contain a clause along the lines of: ' I require that my body be cremated/buried and the costs be a first charge against my estate.'

 

If the estate is responsible for burying/cremating the corpse, then the corpse belongs to the estate.

 

In UK law the dead body cannot belong to anybody.

 

In law, no one owns a corpse. However the primary duty to dispose of a body is down to the Personal Representatives or Executors. Should there be no one who is able to dispose of the body (under the strict sequence of entitlement), the Local Authority must dispose of the body.

 

http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/who-decides-what-happens-to-my-body-when-i-die_1105.html

[BritPat]

Would you have to wait until they died from natural/accidental causes, or - if the demand was high (and the people needing the organs were 'influential') - might the process be 'hurried along a bit'?

 

I understand that there are very strict laws which prohibit that form of genetic screening.

 

How would you feel if your body was found (at birth) to have a genetic defect which might shorten your life and the Insurance companies declined to insure you?

 

Getting life insurance is difficult for people who are actually ill. Would it be acceptable to discriminate against people who might become ill?

 

At the moment it is not.

 

Hurried along to the point of imminence !

 

My contribution is phrased as a question as distinct from a recommendation.