A proposal has suggested that we have a law change to allow Australians to offer a kidney for sale to those awaiting a transplant. Fifty thousand dollars has been mooted as a fair price.
Most likely this suggestion has been tongue in cheek. It has no chance of being accepted, but at least it will focus the media on the disastrous state of organ donations in this country.
For some reason the majority of Australians say that they support the idea of organ donations after death - but when it comes to reality few have bothered to indicate their wishes to near relatives - and even those who have signed a donation acceptance form are usually second guessed by their loved ones.
Perhaps it is time to stop and have a long, hard look at the death industry.
Our body is simply something we use for convenience while we are inhabitants of this planet - and which we discard at death !
When death occurs our relatives have that body conveyed to a cemetery. They pay a lot of money for a burial plot - and then usually spend an additional sum to have at least a headstone - and in some cases pay a fortune for a sculpture of an angel or similar figure to adorn the grave.
Decades down the track - when all close relatives have joined the deceased in death - that grave site sits with others in an abandoned cemetery, desecrated by vandals and rapidly falling into disrepair - and becoming a blot on an otherwise nice neighbourhood.
In life we are exhorted to recycle. Wouldn't that be a worthy principle to apply to death ?
The idea that we all become organ donors automatically - with only those who for some reason take the trouble to opt out - makes sense. That would seem to accommodate the wish of the majority - while at the same time offering a choice to those who decline for religious or other reasons.
All it would take would be for the politicians to have the courage to amend the law. Unfortunately " courage " is not a word usually applied to politicians !
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