As you say it may be a way of saving more lives, but I don't need the government making the decision for me or my family.  It creates a conflict of interest and questions of morality that I am really not comfortable having others make about me, or my family, even if means perhaps saving the life of another family member, friend or neighbor.

I'm not using it anymore...they can have it.

But please keep the government out of it. As terp said, it creates a conflict of interest. Plus I don't really trust the government to wait till I'm dead before they start hacking....or to handle it in a tactful way. I can just imagine it....shudder.

You will have an option about it. All you will have to do is make one phone call to remove consent.

Donor-legislation was recently a hot topic in the Netherlands too, people wanting to change the current opt-in to an opt-out system, with a view that most people that hadn't registered yet just couldn't be bothered and would have decided to register if it wasn't such a hassle. An opt-out system would at least require those who didn't want to be donors to get off their butts and do something.

What irked me most is that even if you registered as a donor they would ask your relatives for permission, as if they'd have more to say about my body than me. I'm not sure whether they wanted to keep that in the new situation though, I hope not. I would hope people could talk their wishes through with their families and I'd certainly hope that those families would respect the wishes of the deceased.

The lack of donor organs makes it clear that someone, probably the government as it's all regulated anyway, has to do something to make people aware of the need to choose. On the other hand I think that for people to make a choice there's a lot that can be clarified about the donation process - and maybe a lot to be done about the registration possibilities. In the old pre-registration system where you'd carry a donor card voluntarily you could at least specify your restrictions - even if in the end they probably didn't matter too much. Nowadays you can at most register which parts of your body you do / don't want to give up, I'm sure my asthmatic brother would love to give his kidney to somebody that smokes

I agree with Terp and Loca.  They can have mine as well - but that is because I signed my donor card.  Please, let's not have organ harvesting (need a heart?  Hire someone to bash in the brain of your compatible if you are rich enough!).

Keep it the way it is.  Maybe even lay some guilt on people!  But dont snatch them.

They ask us on our driver's licenses here. Yep, I'm a donor. But it's nobody's business but mine. The government, by all means, is welcome to encourage it and talk it up...but no one should be forced to do it, because there are people whose religion discourages donations, or any number of reasons. It's my business and mine alone. Not my family's, not the government's, not the doctors'. MINE.

One of the problems is that the wishes of would be donors are often over-ruled by family members. I would rather remove the ability of families to reverse the deceased's decision to be donor first and see how that affects the waiting lists. Presumed consent really should be a last resort.