Bill expected to increase number of Wisconsin organ donors
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A bill which recently received final legislative approval is expected to increase the number of people who pledge to be donors and boost the number of actual donors, the director of University of Wisconsin Hospital’s organ recovery service says.
“It allows people who make their wishes known to be honored and not overridden,” Dr. Tony D’Alessandro said.
The legislation was passed last month and Jessica Erickson, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jim Doyle, said he will sign it soon.
The bill would establish a donor registry, allowing people to sign up any time, not only when they renew their driver’s license every eight years. It also would lower the age of consent from 18 to 15. In cases where it is unclear if the person wanted to be an organ donor, the bill elevates the consent-granting power of appointed health-care agents over family members.
Organ recovery services in other states have been taken to court when they have tried to follow a pledged donor’s wishes over the objections of family members.
Mar 10, 2008 at 7:32 a.m.
Suggest removal
With our current system, you have to opt-in to become an organ donor. How many people do nothing through simple intertia or laziness? Why not reverse the system? Make everyone of legal age an organ donor, unless they take an action to opt-out. That would allow anyone with moral, ethical, or religious compunctions to avoid donation, but I'd bet almost nobody would take the option, and the scarcity of organs would shrink or disappear.
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