Welsh archbishop opposes 'presumed consent' policy for organ donation

CWN - January 02, 2012

Archbishop George Stack of Cardiff, Wales, has issued a strong objection to a government proposal that would assume that everyone consented to being an organ donor.

Archbishop Stack did not oppose organ donation, but expressed serious reservations about a policy that could place people in the donor category without their authorization.

"I agree with my fellow Church leaders that our organs should be donated as a gift to others and not as a duty," the archbishop said. "Our bodies are not an asset of the state."

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  • Posted by: hartwood01 - Jan. 03, 2012 4:13 PM ET USA

    Oh,you have to know that opting out of organ retrieval is only a way of getting around those who would not donate ordinarily. Hold the line folks,our freedoms are slipping away rapidly.

  • Posted by: stpetric - Jan. 03, 2012 12:43 PM ET USA

    It doesn't sound to me as if the proposed law treat people's bodies as "an asset of the state." People are entirely free to opt out of organ donation. What this does, though, is force them to make a decision. The beneficiaries of the law are not "the state" but fellow citizens--or brothers and sisters, as we call them in the Church--in urgent need of transplants.

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