Presumed consent for my organs but not telemarketer calls?
So let me get this straight.
While I have signed my organ donor card, I find it quite troubling that some politicians are pushing for presumed consent for organ donation, while I have to opt-out of getting unwanted phone calls.
Kind of backwards don't you think?
While I have signed my organ donor card, I find it quite troubling that some politicians are pushing for presumed consent for organ donation, while I have to opt-out of getting unwanted phone calls.
Kind of backwards don't you think?
posted by Spitfire at 11:56 AM
2 Comments:
I dunno about that. I don't much like the idea of the state having automatic dibbs on my body, especially since The Man already tells me what I am and am not allowed to commodify from it. The idea of the Crown treating peoples' organs like the rough equivalent of minerals etc under the earth ("It's ours, whether or not it's inside your own property") and not letting us control our own organs creeps me the frick out.
Conceptually, the only way they really presume consent for medical interference is basically during emergency procedures when you're in no capacity to consent otherwise... and that's because it's a very basic presumption that people want their lives saved if possible. But that's, again, the most basic kind of thing.
Presuming that The Man has an automatic say about what happens to [bits of] your body after you pass on is slippery. Beyond the moral/legal issues involved, what people are consenting to when they consent to donate an organ is downright ambiguous. For just one example, do you intend to donate skin (from any area, even if they want it because it's got a weird birthmark or a crazy tattoo or just the perfect shade of white/pink/brown/black or whatever)? Skin is the largest organ. It was a long time ago when I signed my organ donor papers, but I don't think they gave me the chance to pick and choose what I'd like to donate.
By contrast, phones can serve as a doorway into your private life, but unless you're using it unreasonably (like the Motherwell case from Alberta), the presumption is that by getting a phone hooked up, you've opened that door so that people can call you.
Don't forget, you may not be quite "dead" when they come for your organs. The death test for organ donors may be different than the usual death test, depending on the hospital you are in.
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