人體器官移植：假如不事先提出反對就被認定自動捐獻？

金筆譯自 CNN.COM

下圖：英國現首相 Gordon Brown


英國首相 Gordon Brown 周日表示，他支持隻要死者生前沒有表示反對，醫院可以隨意在死者身上摘取器官供移植使用這項計劃。

發表在英國周日報紙上的一篇文章中，Brown 說因為捐助器官的不足，每年大約有 1000 名病人因得不到移植器官而死亡。而擬議中的這項改革措施將會改善這一情形，Brown 並稱這一 "情形" 為 "可以避免的悲劇"。

根據 Brown 的文章，英國的現狀是每年有大約 8000 名病人在等待器官移植，但每年大約隻有 3000 名病人得到器官。

Brown 說，"我們中間很多人都有朋友或家庭成員因器官移植而得到好處，或者是悲劇性的，因為沒有及時得到移植器官而死亡。"

"我們可以，並且必須采取措施，避免這類悲劇的發生。"

目前英國的現行製度是，器官捐獻者必須在生前簽立誌願書，這樣他們死後，身上的器官才會被摘取。大約有一千五百萬個誌願者 (約占總人口的四分之一) 已經簽立了誌願書。

但是 Brown 說，他支持將現行製度修改為自動捐獻。即隻要死者生前沒有反對，或者家屬提出反對，醫院將自動認定死者為誌願者。

擬議中的這項改革措施有點類似西班牙的現行製度，Brown 說，在西班牙，大約每百萬人群中有 35 名死者的器官將被移植他用。在美國，這個比率是 25，而在目前英國，每百萬人群中隻有 13 名死者的器官將被移植他用。(這是因為即使是自願，供體的器官還得根據每個人的組織抗原係統是否配對，尋找到適合的接受者，才能進行器官移植，而配對的可能性很底。金筆注)

按照西班牙法律，死者自動被認定是器官捐獻誌願者。但是醫院還必須征得家屬的同意才能摘取器官。因此在西班牙，醫院裏通常指定的管理官員，他們通常在死者死亡後不久征詢家屬，以獲取同意。

Brown 說他撰文的目的是希望能在器官移植問題上引起社會階層 "嚴肅的討論"，在英國不少團體或個人，因為種種原因，反對器官移植，他們認為器官的捐助應該由病人或家屬自己決定。

Brown 最後說，"這是一個十分敏感的話題，各種觀點都應當被認真對待。我提出來是想引起辯論，因為可以肯定，社會上有不少必須認真思考的疑慮。"

下圖：可供移植的人體器官


原文如下：

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he supports plans to allow hospitals to take dead patients' organs without their prior consent.

Gordon Brown says the shortage of transplant organs is "an avoidable human tragedy we can and must address."

Writing in a British newspaper Sunday, Brown said the change was needed to cover a shortfall in donors which led to more than 1,000 people in Britain dying each year awaiting transplants, a situation he called an "avoidable human tragedy."

In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, he said there were currently more than 8,000 people in the country awaiting organ donation but only 3,000 transplants were carried out each year.

"Many of us will have friends and family members who have benefited from transplant surgery, or - tragically - who have endured the agonizing wait for a life-saving organ that did not become available in time," the prime minister wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

"That is an avoidable human tragedy we can and must address," he added.

Under the present system people must sign up to an organ donor register if they want to give up their organs after they die. A total of 14.9 million people -- around 24 per cent of the population -- are on the register.

However, Brown said he backed moving to a system of "presumed consent" whereby a dead person's organs would automatically be available for transplant unless individuals had opted out of the national register or family members objected.

The proposals are closely modeled on the donor system in Spain where Brown said around 35 people per million had their organs used by hospitals. This compares with 13 donors per million in Britain and 25 per million in America, he added.

Although in Spain consent is presumed by law, families are still asked to give their permission for the donation to go ahead.

The system is managed by dedicated transplant co-ordinators who talk to grieving relatives, often within a few hours of death, to seek their consent.

Brown said he wanted to start "a serious debate" about the issue of organ donation, which remains contentious especially among many faith groups and patients' rights bodies who argue the decision should be left to the patients and their families alone.

"It is a sensitive issue, and one on which many different points of view need to be heard. I want to start a genuine debate, and I recognize that there will be legitimate concerns that need to be heard," Brown wrote.

[金筆]

說是免費移植，但還是要付很昂貴的手續費，前幾年是有黑市現行，現在似乎杜絕了。

[雲耳]

好家夥，政府把你死後也管上了，他們這麽弄，整出來的器官是賣錢呢，還是免費移植呀？