INTRODUCING an opt-out system for organ donation would be "something akin to a tax imposed by the state" on people's bodies after death, according to a Free Church of Scotland minister.
The Reverend Dr Donald MacDonald, a former surgeon, said a bid by a Labour MSP to introduce a "soft" opt-out system in Scotland would mean in effect "that the state claims to have ownership of our bodies after death unless we consciously reject this while alive".
Instead, Dr MacDonald suggested that increasing the number of nurses who were specially trained on organ donation and improving education on the issue in schools might be a better way of boosting the number of organs made available for transplant.
He made the comments in response to Labour MSP Anne McTaggart's proposed member's bill, which seeks to change the law to introduce an opt-out system.
The Organ and Tissue Donation (Scotland) Bill sets out that all adults would have to register if they did not want their organs to be used for transplant after their death.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article