All Your Organs Are Belong To Us!

Yet another grasp for power at the expense of liberty...

State plan volunteers all to donate organs, tissue

A plan that is being pushed now in the state of Colorado by two Democratic lawmakers would allow the government to assume that its residents want to donate their organs or tissue.
[...]
It calls for state administrators to present to applicants the statement:

You are automatically deemed to have consented to being an organ and tissue donor and this designation will appear on your driver's license or identification card. If you do not want to be considered an organ and tissue donor, you must elect to not be included on the organ donor registry by inserting your initials on the line below.

KMGH reported similar plans already have failed in Delaware, Illinois and New York because of the coercive nature of the statement.

Dr. Jackie Glover, of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities that is linked to the University of Colorado, had similar concerns.

"It seems coercive. It is not voluntary if you don't ask me," Glover told KMGH.
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Commentator Wesley J. Smith at the First Things blog was alarmed.

"When [organ donation] was being pitched to a wary public, we were solemnly assured that only those who specifically agreed to donate their organs ahead of time, or with consent from family after death, would be donors. Now, we see advocacy to do away with specific consent – in other words to the concept of 'donation' – and replace it with organ conscription, in which the state could take your organs unless you specifically opted out beforehand…"

The British Medical Journal earlier studied the issue and said, "systems of opting out do not ensure higher rates of donation than opting-in systems."

"People may be more likely to donate when they feel they retain control of that decision rather than the law dictating that donation should take place. Brazil had to withdraw its system of presumed consent because it aggravated mistrust in the health-care system," the report said.