Letters to the editor

No need for Government to change the law

Sir, – The Scottish Government’s intention to change the law on post-mortem organ donation is ill-advised and unnecessary.

It is not a question of whether a state has an opt-out or opt-in system that has been responsible for lower than hoped numbers of organs actually used post-mortem, it is the practise of affording bereaved families the final say.

There is no requirement in current law to consult any surviving person prior to obtaining the deceased’s organs for use, it is merely common practice of doctors to respect the wishes of others that leads to the misconception that these wishes are a right.

People must be disabused of this misconception.

The real issue is that of bereaved families too often substituting their own wishes for the actual wishes of the deceased.

This happens much more often to prevent donation than to permit it, thus depriving the deceased of their stated wish to donate.

Where there exists the deceased’s clearly registered wish to donate, this must be respected over that of family.

That is the current law – doctors should be encouraged to apply it as the law allows, not as others misappropriating ethics to circumvent the law dictate.

There are inarguably a small number of cases where the deceased will have been registered to donate but will subsequently have expressed a wish orally to a relative not to.

Sadly, in the absence of proof, the law must continue to operate to protect the wishes of the vast majority of the deceased by trusting doctors, not relatives, with the final decision.

A deceased’s will stands in law, the word of a relative does not. So it must be with organ donation.

Change the attitude, not the law. Ron Rose. Bridgend, Dunblane.

The stated wishes of the deceased ought to be respected.