PUBLIC Health Minister Aileen Campbell is quite correct in saying organ donation is an “incredible gift” ("New law on organ donors includes presumed consent", The Herald, June 12). I notice she does not follow on from this by saying this will cease to be the case under the proposed presumed consent system. It is simple logic.A gift is something one freely gives. An organ compulsorily harvested by the state therefore by definition cannot be a gift.The assumption is that, unless the donor has actively said no, they have said yes. How so? We simply cannot know.
We are told 82 per cent back this change. This figure must be approached with caution. I suspect a large number of those taking part in the survey were motivated to do so by having a personal interest in the subject, being either someone awaiting an organ, or else friends and family of such persons.
If I do not express an opinion on a subject, no-one should have the right to presume to know what I would say. Especially not the state.
This proposed law may have good intentions, but it increases the power of the state to unacceptable levels (effectively the state owns the bodies of its citizens) and is ethically wrong.
Alan Jenkins,
0/1, 111 Helensburgh Drive, Glasgow.
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