Science Memes

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Oopsies (lemmy.nz)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] imaqtpie 48 points 1 week ago (19 children)

I think it's interesting to ask whether people in the opt-out countries are really consenting. Can you really say someone has consented if you never actually made the request?

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Personally, I don't really see that much value in the affirmative consent of the dead. Viable organs are hard to get, and save lives. I think it's worth it to keep it opt-out.

[–] imaqtpie 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I agree, but it raises an interesting argument regarding the definition of consent. I don't necessarily believe in free will so I like to mention it in situations where you can easily see that people are more accurately described as reacting to their environment than making any kind of conscious choice.

Simply by changing from opt-in to opt-out, you mostly reverse the observed behavior of a population. Lots of applications for this sort of thinking, like voting for instance.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Germany is currently considering a third way: they ask you.

Everyone in Germany has health insurance, so the idea is that the health insurance simply asks you directly to decide. Most people are in favor of organ donation, but never actually get an organ donor card or talk to their relatives. Asking them to decide won't get anywhere near the donor rates of an opt-out scheme, but it could drastically increase them.

[–] imaqtpie 5 points 1 week ago

That sounds promising, I think you're right that it would be a significant improvement in donor rates over the opt-in system.

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