French Citizens Will Now All Automatically Be Organ Donors

[Clark]

http://fortune.com/2017/01/04/france-automatic-organ-donation/

French Citizens Will Now All Automatically Be Organ Donors
Sy Mukherjee

A major public health change swept France on New Year's as new regulations making citizens automatic organ donors unless they specifically choose to opt out through a national database took effect. /react-text
react-text: 226 The new "opt-out" system is aimed at combating widespread organ shortages and long wait lists for transplants. Previously, French citizens who hadn't specified whether or not they wanted donate after dying could have their organs' fate left up to relatives. Now, the responsibility will fall on individuals, and next-of-kin will no longer have carte blanche veto power.

Those who object to donating their organs will have to sign up with a National Register of Refusal or make their intents known through written documents they leave with their families. They can also tell their relatives that they've chosen to opt out, and these family members would then have to provide signed documentations to that effect to doctors. About 150,000 people have already signed up for the refusal register, react-text: 235 according to /react-text The Guardian Opt-out donation systems already exist in a number of places in Europe, including Spain, Austria, and Wales. While they can be controversial, there's at least some research suggesting that they improve donation rates in countries that adopt them.

For instance, /react-text react-text: 247 a 2014 review /react-text react-text: 248 by U.K. researchers examining 48 countries with opt-in or opt-out systems found that donor rates were significantly higher in countries using opt-out regimens. (Interestingly, /react-text living react-text: 250 donor rates were actually higher in the opt-in systems, although /react-text overall react-text: 252 transplants for sought-after organs like livers and kidneys were higher in the opt-out systems.) /react-text
react-text: 254 The U.S. government (which has an opt-in system) /react-text react-text: 256 estimates /react-text react-text: 257 that a patient is added to the national transplant waiting list every ten minutes, and that 22 people die every day while waiting for a transplant.