Presumed Consent
Presumed Consent is when the State “presumes you WANT to be an Organ Donor.”
Instead of a person walking into a Secretary of State’s office’s and signing a donor card to donate their organs, a person must sign an OPT-OUT form.
Pennsylvania, State Senator Don White, believes human organ donation and transplantation is an issue that deserves more attention.
In light of this he has introduced Senate Bill 1305 and Senate Bill 1306
Senate Bill 1305 would redesign driver’s license and identification card applications to include the question “Do you wish to have organ donor designation printed on your driver’s license?”
“This question, although it is required to be asked, is not printed on all driver’s license/identification forms,” White said. “My bill would also require a phrase to be added to all forms stating that Pennsylvania strongly supports organ and tissue donation because of its life-saving and life-enhancing opportunities.”
Senate Bill 1306 would create a “presumed consent” or “opt-out” system which is in contrast to Pennsylvania’s current “opt-in” process.
Under the legislative change, all applications for a driver’s license or identification card would state: “You are automatically deemed to have consented to being an organ and tissue donor. If you do not want to be considered an organ and tissue donor, you must elect to not be included on the organ donor registry by inserting your initials on the line below.”
Applicants will still have a choice in the matter, White said. But when faced with the question, when required to take a proactive step not to participate, he believes more people will choose to help others by becoming an organ donor.
Informed Consent
People need to be informed on what happens to them when they sign the donor card.
I believe more people would OPT-OUT and never sign an organ donor card, if they were told the truth. If the United States mandated informed consent then you would know what truly happens to you during the harvesting. Brain death is the cutting open of a seriously injured but a live person. They are not given anesthesia so they FEEL the pain. If people understood that if you were truly dead, and laying on the side of the road, their organ’s would NOT be available to transplant. Organ’s need to be vital to be transplanted into a recipient.
Quite frankly I already HATE to go in the Secretary of State in Michigan, the clerks all wear badges,”Would you like to be an organ donor”? And there is a sticker on every chair.
Success Stories
I hope stories like this one about Jimi Fritze, who heard everything the doctors were saying when they wanted to take his organs and he was in a coma.
I am reading a book now by Kate Adamson, Paralyzed but not Powerless.
Kate, at a young age of 38 had a stroke like my son Jamie. Her husband an attorney would not agree to pulling the plug and she recovered. Kate is now an international speaker. Like Kate and Jim many people will WAKE up if given time.
I’m not gonna lie, this story and book were really hard for me to read as I thought about Jamie and what he was hearing when the organ requester at Vanderbilt was at the foot of his bed talking about how many organ’s they could get.
At least I ran the lady in blue out…more on that in my soon to be released book.
Call your Senators and tell them to NOT support these two bills, Senate Bills 1305 and 1306. If it passes in Pennsylvania, every other state will follow suite. STOP the legal killing.
More success stories on people waking up from brain death declarations.
Tell me in your comments, if you think Presumed Consent or Informed Consent is the way to go.
