http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jun/30/opt-out-organ-donation-scheme-uk-wales

The first organ donation scheme in the UK that puts the onus on citizens to opt out if they do not wish to take part is set to be given the go-ahead on Tuesday.

Welsh assembly members are to vote on a controversial bill under which adults will be deemed to have consented to their organs and tissue being used if they have not stipulated otherwise.

The Welsh government believes the law will increase the number of organs available, save dozens of lives every year and, if successful, could be copied in other parts of the UK.

Opponents claim the move gives the state too much control over people's bodies, could cause extra distress for bereaved families and puts medical staff in a difficult position.

They'd be hard pushed to get a heart out of politicians

What?

Does this mean that if I needed an organ donation it might be from a Welshman?

This is merely a scheme by the bloody little Taff trolls to sneak back into England after the efforts of us glorious Anglo-Saxons to drive them into the bleak mountains and valleys of the Principality and confine them to the sheep-ridden hills and coal mines where they belong.

I realise that some, like Julia Gillard, escape or are transported to sunnier climes, but they still inflict their mean-minded ways upon the brighter A-S's and need to be driven underground again.

I always carried a donor card in the UK anyway.

As long as I'm dead first they can have any spares they want (probably not going to want my liver).

I like the idea of an opt-out system rather than opt-in.

What?

Does this mean that if I needed an organ donation it might be from a Welshman?

This is merely a scheme by the bloody little Taff trolls to sneak back into England after the efforts of us glorious Anglo-Saxons to drive them into the bleak mountains and valleys of the Principality and confine them to the sheep-ridden hills and coal mines where they belong.

I realise that some, like Julia Gillard, escape or are transported to sunnier climes, but they still inflict their mean-minded ways upon the brighter A-S's and need to be driven underground again.

I think it means you probably wouldn't get the organ you need because you aren't a Welshman, HB.

It seems entirely sensible to me. When we die, our bodies are just so much waste matter; if some of it can be re-used, well and good.

Crossy, how does one get a Donor Card?

Crossy, how does one get a Donor Card?

You can download a UK one from the Daily Wail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-111279/Click-donor-card.html

Not sure how the Thais would react mind, anyone know if there's a Thai equivalent?

As long as I'm dead first they can have any spares they want (probably not going to want my liver).

I like the idea of an opt-out system rather than opt-in.

I agree. I'm not even sure that citizens should have any option at all. Give the organs to someone who can actually use them.

As long as I'm dead first they can have any spares they want (probably not going to want my liver).

I like the idea of an opt-out system rather than opt-in.

I agree. I'm not even sure that citizens should have any option at all. Give the organs to someone who can actually use them.

And what doesn't get "donated" should be mandatorily sent to the cremation factories for phosphorus recovery

I've no objection to cremation (that's what'll probably happen to my body), but inhumation is fine too, so long as there is no protective encoffining. Nature reuses everything; the phosphorus factory doesn't.

I've no objection to cremation (that's what'll probably happen to my body), but inhumation is fine too, so long as there is no protective encoffining. Nature reuses everything; the phosphorus factory doesn't.

Any objection to state ordered cremation at 60?

Lenina and Henry climbed into their machine and started off. At eight hundred feet Henry slowed down the helicopter screws, and they hung for a minute or two poised above the fading landscape. The forest of Burnham Beeches stretched like a great pool of darkness towards the bright shore of the western sky. Crimson at the horizon, the last of the sunset faded, through orange, upwards into yellow and a pale watery green. Northwards, beyond and above the trees, the Internal and External Secretions factory glared with a fierce electric brilliance from every window of its twenty stories. Beneath them lay the buildings of the Golf Club–the huge Lower Caste barracks and, on the other side of a dividing wall, the smaller houses reserved for Alpha and Beta members. The approaches to the monorail station were black with the ant-like pullulation of lower-caste activity. From under the glass vault a lighted train shot out into the open. Following its southeasterly course across the dark plain their eyes were drawn to the majestic buildings of the Slough Crematorium. For the safety of night-flying planes, its four tall chimneys were flood-lighted and tipped with crimson danger signals. It was a landmark. "Why do the smoke-stacks have those things like balconies around them?" enquired Lenina. "Phosphorus recovery," explained Henry telegraphically. "On their way up the chimney the gases go through four separate treatments. P₂O₅ used to go right out of circulation every time they cremated some one. Now they recover over ninety-eight per cent of it. More than a kilo and a half per adult corpse. Which makes the best part of four hundred tons of phosphorus every year from England alone." Henry spoke with a happy pride, rejoicing whole-heartedly in the achievement, as though it had been his own. "Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead. Making plants grow." Lenina, meanwhile, had turned her eyes away and was looking perpendicularly downwards at the monorail station. "Fine," she agreed. "But queer that Alphas and Betas won't make any more plants grow than those nasty little Gammas and Deltas and Epsilons down there."

And thanks for teaching me a new word. Hadn't heard "inhumation" before.

State-ordered cremation at 60? Seems more than a little premature.

You would have eliminated most of the contributors to OTB, I suspect. All that wisdom gone up in smoke!

State-ordered cremation at 60? Seems more than a little premature.

You would have eliminated most of the contributors to OTB, I suspect. All that wisdom gone up in smoke!

Couldn't agree more, it's just that the whole thing kind of reminded me of the Huxley book, Brave New World. I carry an organ donor card, but I really do think it should be an opt in system. It is a gift after all.

State-ordered cremation at 60? Seems more than a little premature.

You would have eliminated most of the contributors to OTB, I suspect. All that wisdom gone up in smoke!

Couldn't agree more, it's just that the whole thing kind of reminded me of the Huxley book, Brave New World. I carry an organ donor card, but I really do think it should be an opt in system. It is a gift after all.

It's questionable whether you are in a position to make a gift after your death.

What?

Does this mean that if I needed an organ donation it might be from a Welshman?

This is merely a scheme by the bloody little Taff trolls to sneak back into England after the efforts of us glorious Anglo-Saxons to drive them into the bleak mountains and valleys of the Principality and confine them to the sheep-ridden hills and coal mines where they belong.

I realise that some, like Julia Gillard, escape or are transported to sunnier climes, but they still inflict their mean-minded ways upon the brighter A-S's and need to be driven underground again.

You wouldn't want a donor organ from a Welshman or you might find yourself wanting a leek all the while. Of course donation of organs should be the default status, it's down to simple common sense and pragmatism.

uk.msn,com poll Should organ donation be compulsory after death?

1. 15 % Yes, to save lives 2,016 votes
2. 50 % No, it's up to individuals 6,814 votes
3. 0 % Doctors should decide 179 votes
4. 9 % Let families decide 1,205 votes
5. 26 % Introduce an opt-out system 3,508 votes

I voted 2. I believe I should decide who gets what. eg should alcoholics get a second liver to destroy?

What?

Does this mean that if I needed an organ donation it might be from a Welshman?

This is merely a scheme by the bloody little Taff trolls to sneak back into England after the efforts of us glorious Anglo-Saxons to drive them into the bleak mountains and valleys of the Principality and confine them to the sheep-ridden hills and coal mines where they belong.

I realise that some, like Julia Gillard, escape or are transported to sunnier climes, but they still inflict their mean-minded ways upon the brighter A-S's and need to be driven underground again.

I think it means you probably wouldn't get the organ you need because you aren't a Welshman, HB.

No. Although it is a Welsh NHS/government scheme, the organs would be available across the entire NHS - Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland and England. Of course the vast bulk would be delivered to England in a sneaky attempt to get the prosperous flatlands back from the nice Anglo-Saxons and those damned Normans.

Of course the Welsh now have something else to complain about, as they are claiming that the English will steal all their resources.

Let them use sheeps livers, say I.

(The NHS web-site has a donor section - I used to give blood and I carry a donor card - for English use only )

I've no objection to cremation (that's what'll probably happen to my body), but inhumation is fine too, so long as there is no protective encoffining. Nature reuses everything; the phosphorus factory doesn't.

Islamic burial, then.

The Zoroastrians expose the body on a tower (Tower of Silence) for the birds and weather to take care of disposal. The Muslims bury the body in a cloth bag,or directly into the ground. Cremation is a messy business, not just ashes but a lot of partly burnt bones in the end product.

My first wife was Spanish and her father had been buried in a wall. It seems that the body was first buried in a body-sized hole in a wall, then, when skeltonised, moved to another location to be re-buried. She did not fully explain the process, so when she said she wanted to re-bury her father I said OK. We went to one cemetery, she had the wall cracked open and we had to pull out a load of bones, put them in the boot of my car and take them 100km to where her family plot was in another wall. Bloody horrible experience for me, on our honeymoon.

"My first wife was Spanish and her father had been buried in a wall."

...and...

" We went to one cemetery, she had the wall cracked open and we had to pull out a load of bones, put them in the boot of my car and take them 100km to where her family plot was in another wall. Bloody horrible experience for me, on our honeymoon."

That explains the divorce.

I could give another couple of (hundred) reasons ....