Masha Slonim: We still need to explain that organ donation saves lives

Next week in Britain there will be a week of organ donation public awareness campaign. We still need to explain to people that organ donation saves lives.

Yes, in theory, we all know that our organs, still good after death, could help others, but it’s considered inappropriate to talk about what happens when we die. And it’s wrong.

My sister and I both knew that our mother had bequeathed her body to the Medical Institute at the University of London. She talked to us about this and even wrote about it in her will. Her mother, our grandmother, did the same thing.

Yes, they died when they were fairly advanced in years, but even old people have certain organs – the eye retina for example - that are suitable for transplant to those who need them for medical reasons.

All of us are very passive and don’t like to think about death. And to talk about it to our relatives.
Apparently, very few people in Britain are ready to discuss with their relatives a question of what happens with their body after death.

Even among registered donors of organs only half told their relatives about their desire to become a donor after death.

In Great Britain still exists a presumption of non-consent, meaning that one has to specify somewhere that he or she agrees to a posthumous organ donation.

The government claims that a new legislation that establishes a principle of consent in the cases of donation if it’s passed by Parliament (it’s expected to happen in 2020), could help to save 700 lives every year.

Now the situation with regard to the organ donation isn’t very good. Among 600, 000 people who died in Britain in the period from April 2016 and March 2017 only the organs of 5, 7 thousand were transplanted to those in need of emergent surgeries, another 1, 4 thousand became donors after their relatives had received a special request.

At present 6,500 people in the United Kingdom are on the waiting lists for organ transplant, and because of a lack of organs provided by donors 400 patients died in the country last year.

The worst part is that 80 % of Britons say that they are ready to become organ donors, but only 36 % bothered to register as donors.

A new system that will come into force after the adoption of the law will allow saving thousands of lives.
The draft law on organ donation was drawn up after many months of public consultations – all objections and wishes were taken into account. As a result, exceptions will be made to those who in his or her lifetime officially refused to be included in the list of donors in case of death.

The organs of children younger than 18 years old, people with mental disabilities and those who have lived in the country less than 12 months won’t be used for transplantations by default.

During the pre-surgery examination I heard a small lecture on the benefits of organ donation and signed up a paper that I didn’t object to my old, worn-out joint, that is, an unnecessary bone, being ground to powder, compressed and used to fix other people’s joints and prosthetics. Naturally, I didn’t objects and answered all questions about health and diseases and signed up everything in good faith.

I don’t mind giving up a worn-out joint that I won’t need in the foreseeable future.

Some time ago I generously shared my blood and even had a donor card. But for some reason, I, like 36 % of Britons, didn’t fill out The Organ Donor Card. Probably it was simply because nobody in our hospital offered it to me.

In Russia where everything related to organ donation is still regulated by the law adopted in 1992, there’s a new legislation in the works as well, despite the fact that the presumption of consent has already been there for a long time. The organs of the diseased can’t be used for transplantation only if his relatives are against it or a person himself officially expressed his wish to exclude him from organ donation.

A new Russian law on organ donation implies the creation of a Federal register of organ donors, recipients and organs, using the single state database in the sphere of healthcare. There are proposals to place a mark of consent to an after-death donation of organs on the driver’s licenses, although it’s not very clear what this mark is for if the presumption of consent itself is in the law.

All in all, this topic is important, organ donation truly saves the lives of living people, and any possible participation in it could save even more lives.

Personally, I’m not going to wait until 2020 and will fill The Organ Donor Card out right now. I don’t mind.