Donate your organs and we’ll pay for your funeral
Radical plan to lift transplant rates
PATIENTS could be ‘bribed’ to donate their organs under radical plans to boost transplant rates.
Families of Scots who agree to donate organs after their death would receive a ‘contribution’ from the state towards funeral expenses in return for their generosity.
The plans have been discussed by senior NHS advisers in an effort to encourage more people to join the Organ Donor Register.
The Scottish Government wants to drive up the numbers of life-saving transplants. Although directly paying organ donors’ families is considered unethical, footing the bill for funeral expenses would be seen as an ‘appropriate acknowledgement’ of the donor’s ‘gift’.
The average cost of a funeral north of the Border has soared to more than £3,500 and many families have no savings to cover the expense.
But last night critics warned the move could be seen as unethical by offering ‘bribes’.
Around 2.3 million Scots are already on the Organ Donor Register. But less than 1 per cent of deaths north of the Border occur in circumstances in which the person is able to donate their organs.
Usually organs come from people who are certified dead while on a ventilator in an intensive care unit.
Last year in Scotland 99 people became organ donors after their deaths, resulting in 331 transplants – but around 540 patients are on the transplant list, many of whom will die waiting.
The Government will soon launch a consultation on organ donation, including proposals for a ‘soft optout’ system which would see people actively opt out of the Organ Donation Register if they did not want their organs removed after death.
Ahead of the consultation, the Government’s Donation And Transplant Group discussed other ‘potential options to increase organ donation rates’ – including ‘contributions to donors’ funeral expenses’.
Minutes from a meeting of the group state: ‘They also discussed a number of other options to increase organ donation rates, such as mandated choice, reciprocity, contributions to donors’ funeral expenses and a system of required referrals.’
Mandated choice requires everyone to state whether or not they want to be a donor, while ‘reciprocity’ systems give priority for transplants to patients who are on the Organ Donor Register.
Required referrals aim to increase the number of potential donors in critical care wards by identifying to transplant co-ordinators patients whose death is imminent.
People who donate their bodies to medical science have their funeral costs met once the body is released by the medical school.
Independent charitable body the Nuffield Council On Bioethics said paying funeral expenses of organ donors by the NHS could be ‘ethically justified’ because ‘donors could not be physically harmed; those close to the donor might benefit directly; and relatives would also clearly have the option of declining the offer of expenses if they preferred not to accept them’.
Keith Rigg, a kidney transplant surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and a member of the Scottish Government Donation And Transplant Group, said the move would be similar to the present policy of paying for the funeral expenses of people who donate their bodies to medical science.
He added: ‘If this were to be considered as a way forward the source of the funding would need to be identified, a set amount of money would probably need to be considered rather than an open-ended amount, and it would be offered if individuals wished to take it.
‘There is of course already a precedent in that the cost of funeral expenses are reimbursed for those donating their bodies for medical science. However, this may be seen as compromising the “gift” element of organ donation.’
But Sarah Jones, trustee of organ donation charity Life Life Give Life, said: ‘We consider organ donation as a gift and the idea of potential organ donors getting their funeral costs met as a way of encouraging people to join the organ donor register could very well be viewed as bribing people to become donors as opposed to being altruistic.
‘Donation is a gift given freely. However, we have to look at ways of encouraging those to think about becoming organ donors, by education and public awareness.’
The Scottish Government failed to respond to requests for a comment.
‘Could be viewed as bribing people’