Cherkassky Lisa
Bradford University Law School, UK.
Eur J Health Law. 2010 Mar;17(2):149-64.
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in presumed consent systems for organ donation. The U.K.'s Organ Donation (Presumed Consent and Safeguards) Bill of 2004 proposed a sweeping change in the law in the form of an opt-out system for the donation of cadaver organs. The Organ Donation Task-force in 2008 later examined the idea of presumed consent at length, before concluding that our current organ procurement system needs a radical overhaul. Most recently, the Organ Donation (Presumed Consent) Bill of 2009 ("the 2009 Bill") provided the most comprehensive proposal yet for an opt-out organ donation system in the United Kingdom. Is it now time to take this controversial issue seriously? If the 2009 Bill provides a window into the future, what practical and ethical difficulties will this new presumed consent legislation impart upon our current organ procurement system? This article will provide an overview of the previous attempts in the U.K. to implement an opt-out system for organ donation, before examining in detail the content of the 2009 Bill as a potential template for a new presumed consent law. Finally, some sweeping amendments to the 2009 Bill will be suggested, and it will be concluded that a new piece of legislation may change our national and international views of organ donation for the better.
近年来，人们对器官捐赠的推定同意系统重新产生了兴趣。英国2004年的《器官捐赠（推定同意和保障措施）法案》提议以尸体器官捐赠的退出系统形式对法律进行全面改革。2008年的器官捐赠特别工作组随后详细研究了推定同意的概念，最后得出结论，认为我们目前的器官获取系统需要彻底改革。最近，2009年的《器官捐赠（推定同意）法案》（“2009年法案”）为英国的退出式器官捐赠系统提供了迄今为止最全面的提议。现在是认真对待这个有争议的问题的时候了吗？如果2009年法案为未来提供了一个窗口，那么这项新的推定同意立法将给我们目前的器官获取系统带来哪些实际和伦理上的困难呢？本文将概述英国此前为实施器官捐赠退出系统所做的尝试，然后详细审视2009年法案的内容，将其作为新的推定同意法的潜在模板。最后，将对2009年法案提出一些全面的修正案，并得出结论，一项新的立法可能会改善我们在国内和国际上对器官捐赠的看法。
