Opt in vs. Opt out Organ Donation

Opt in against opt out organ donations in the world

Opt in against opt out organ donations in the world

Introduction:

Organ donation refers to a medical process in which there is the removal of a biological tissue of the organ from the human body and transplantation of the same in the body of the recipient. The donor of an organ or tissue might be living or dead, and the trend of donating organs after death is a rather emerging trend as compared to organ transplantation of living individuals. There is involvement of several complications in the procedure, and it involves a number of steps. Not everyone can be a suitable donor, and compatibility tests are carried out prior to moving towards the practical step. The medical and social histories of both the individuals are checked and tested, and after that the surgical procedure is carried out for transplantation of organs or tissues. The process of human organ transplant in another human being is known as allotransplantations, while the transplantation of animal organs in the human body is known as xenotransplantation.

The practice of organ donation is more common now than it was ever before, and it has, to some extent, become a routine practice. Most of the countries have laws, which either allow, or disallow organ donation. Depending upon the permission granted by the law and cultural and religious values prevailing in society, the rate of organ donation varies from one place to another. The process of donating an organ after one's death is a personal decision and the person can even opt-in or opt-out of donating an organ after death.

Discussion:

Opt-in vs. Opt-of organ donation:

The debate of Opt-in vs. Opt-out has been an old one and started off with the popularity of the procedure. Opt-in and opt-out are two different methods or organ donation (after death): opt-in refers to the individual who has not agreed to donate an organ to someone and opt-out is the one who has not refused to donate an organ. However, there are other factors involved too. If the individual decides to opt-in for organ donation and signs up for transplantation procurement institution to be able to donate her organs, his/ her spouse or other family members might still refuse to go on with the decision and thus donation can be cancelled. If all the family members of the deceased have agree to go on with the donation, the organ is given to the procurement team for the completion of donation procedure. This clearly shows that organ donation is a lengthy and complicated procedure, which involves a number of obstacles even if the deceased opted-in for donation.

The process of opting-in is common in some of countries, including United Kingdom where a number of individuals opt-in and the relatives too usually agree to go on with the procedure, with the intention of saving lives and serving humanity. The procedure is also widely accepted and practiced in United States, where both the donors and ...