Comments on: Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing People’s Organs Without Consent http://www.antiobamablog.com/2009/09/obama-regulation-czar-advocated-removing-people%e2%80%99s-organs-without-consent/ The Anti-Obama Blog Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:32:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Hands Off My Organs http://www.antiobamablog.com/2009/09/obama-regulation-czar-advocated-removing-people%e2%80%99s-organs-without-consent/comment-page-1/#comment-3796 Hands Off My Organs Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:42:11 +0000 http://www.antiobamablog.com/?p=960#comment-3796 The United States is a whole lot closer to presumed consent than most people know. Most people think you're assumed not to be an organ donor unless you sign up to be one. That used to be true, but it's not any more. Under the 2006 Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, an organ procurement organization (OPO) can assume you are an organ donor while they search for evidence of your true intentions. They can hook you up to artificial life support machines to keep your organs fresh, even if your advance healthcare directive says you don't want artificial life support. They can hassle your family for permission to harvest your organs. They can ask a government bureaucrat for permission if they can't find your family. They can do this even if the "organ donor" box on your driver’s license is blank. The 2006 UAGA has been enacted in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Over 80% of the U.S. population lives in states that have enacted this law. The 2006 UAGA stacks the deck against people who don't want to be organ donors. Unless your decision not to donate is documented in exactly the right way, OPOs can ignore your decision. State organ donor registries, which OPOs must search under the 2006 UAGA, are biased against non-donors. None of them, not a single one, will record your decision not to donate. They literally won't take "no" for an answer. DoNotTransplant.com operates the only online donor registry that allows you to say “no” to organ donation in a way that will stand up under the 2006 UAGA. OPOs are required under law to check this registry. If they find your name on it, they’re legally forbidden from harvesting your organs. The United States is a whole lot closer to presumed consent than most people know. Most people think you’re assumed not to be an organ donor unless you sign up to be one. That used to be true, but it’s not any more.

Under the 2006 Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, an organ procurement organization (OPO) can assume you are an organ donor while they search for evidence of your true intentions. They can hook you up to artificial life support machines to keep your organs fresh, even if your advance healthcare directive says you don’t want artificial life support. They can hassle your family for permission to harvest your organs. They can ask a government bureaucrat for permission if they can’t find your family. They can do this even if the “organ donor” box on your driver’s license is blank.

The 2006 UAGA has been enacted in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Over 80% of the U.S. population lives in states that have enacted this law.

The 2006 UAGA stacks the deck against people who don’t want to be organ donors. Unless your decision not to donate is documented in exactly the right way, OPOs can ignore your decision. State organ donor registries, which OPOs must search under the 2006 UAGA, are biased against non-donors. None of them, not a single one, will record your decision not to donate. They literally won’t take “no” for an answer.

DoNotTransplant.com operates the only online donor registry that allows you to say “no” to organ donation in a way that will stand up under the 2006 UAGA. OPOs are required under law to check this registry. If they find your name on it, they’re legally forbidden from harvesting your organs.

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