15 June 2018

Icelanders are organ donors BY DEFAULT

As reported in the Reykjavik Grapevine:
A crucial law on organ donations that was first introduced to Iceland’s Parliament in 2012 has finally passed. From this point forward, all Icelanders will be organ donors by default, unless they specify otherwise...

The concept of the law is fairly simple. All Icelanders will be assumed to be organ donors by default, with two exceptions: if the deceased specified beforehand that they do not want their organs to be removed, or if the deceased said nothing on the matter but their closest relative objects.

As reported, the bill is far from revolutionary. Other Scandinavian countries have similar laws on the books already.

7 comments:

  1. I would imagine that with how closely related people are in Iceland that the chance of a match is much higher as well.

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  2. Good for them!! I wish it was that way here in the US!

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  3. This is also the case in Belgium. The Netherlands is passing a similar law. The Senate needs to pass it, which will happen in the coming weeks.

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  4. I did not know that Iceland was in Scandinavia.

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  5. This is also the case in France since 2017.
    https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2017/01/02/2489045-les-francais-donneurs-d-organes-par-defaut.html

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  6. As long as it's simple to opt out (for those who object), I love this idea.

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  7. This is also the case in Wales, and legislation is being considered in England and Scotland for the move to an opt-out system.

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