Organ Donor Doctors in a Time Warp

Transplant doctors have reacted in the media to the proposal of an organ donor register by saying it will not work. They then qualify the reason as to why it will not work by saying they will not bother to check a register to see what a persons wishes were, but will continue to go with whatever the family says. Even if this means a veto of the donors' wishes by some long lost cousin that the donor hasn't seen for many years.

Andy Tookey of organ donor lobby group GiveLife NZ, calls this "transplant terrorism. We have done it their way for the past twenty years and the fact that we are still at the bottom of the world when it comes to donors we have is proof that their system doesn't work. It is time for change and it would be helpful if the doctors worked together for a change for the better rather than trying to sabotage it at every step of the way. This is not thiry years ago when everyone accepted what the doctor told them. These days people know that 'doctor does not always know what's best for them.'

Mr. Tookey who has been attending public consultations arranged by the Ministry of Health on whether the law should be changed so that a donors wish can not be overruled by family members was 'dismayed' at one recent public meeting when the spokesperson for the transplant and organ donor services announced that "it would not matter if the law was changed to the donor wishes prevail... We would ignore that law and would continue to be guided by the families wishes."

Tookey believes this amounts to blackmail and bullying on behalf of the doctors, and is equivelant of them throwing their toys out the cot because they can't get their own way. "Perhaps someone should point out to them not only is it the wish of the majority of the public but neither are they above the law." Tookey said.