Big poll majority favours the new opt-out organ donation system

From spring 2020, all adults in England will be considered to have agreed to donate their organs when they die, unless they opt out or are in an exempt group.

So we asked in our Facebook poll: “Do you think an opt-out system is the best way forward?” At the time of writing 470 people had voted, of which 78% said yes, 22% no.

Stuart Harland said: “Organ donation should be compulsory. You don’t need them anymore; you’re dead. Give someone else the chance of a better life.”

Kay Thornton said: “It seems a bit selfish to be cremated with all your organs still in place when they are of absolutely no use to you, but could be giving someone else a better life.”

Samantha Evans said: “I've already had this conversation with my daughters 14 and 13. God forbid anything happened to any of them.”

Anna Brotherton has misgivings, saying: “Everyone should be an organ donor. But I dunno, there's something about the government having a default claim to your organs that makes me uncomfortable.”

Graeme Appleby said: “I'm a transplant recipient myself, a kidney. Over 25 years I've had it now.

“For most of those years I attended the British Transplant Games annually. You really should see how the transplant patients treat the donor families. They are treated like gods.”