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Brave New Labour
Britain's government isn't content with controlling its citizens' lives while they're walking the earth: Recent reports suggest it is extending its authority into the womb and after death.
The Catholic Church famously argues that life begins at the moment of conception and kindly makes provision to welcome the faithful on their arrival in the afterlife. In mimicry of this successful model, New Labour has laid out recommendations and requirements for families expecting children, and has revealed plans to take possession of bodies after death.
Rod Liddle, who is always good value, is incensed by the government's plans to make organ donation obligatory. In future, Britons will have to opt out, rather than opt into organ donation schemes. The medical establishment has been calling for this for decades, but under Labour, one can't help but feel that the demands of doctors have been outweighed by a zealous government eager to extend its jurisdiction into the realms of ownership of the body.
In 1999, prominent bioethist Professor John Harris said that bodies become public property upon death so their organs could be harvested. The chairman of the British Organ Donor Society at the time disagreed with the proposals, arguing "It would be completely alien to the culture of the land."
Have we changed that much?
The government has already declared its territory includes the air that you breath, legislating against smokers in public spaces: Now, as the life leaves your ailing body, New Labour's graverobbers will be polishing their scalpels and circling your hospital bed.
How many organs are needed every year? The NHS Donor Register site says that since April 2007, 1,900 people have received transplants; 1941 have "received the gift of sight"; 7560 people still await transplants. However, 14,927,471 people – 24% of the population - have, by the NHS site's figures, signed up to donate their organs.
A quarter of the population. If we apply that rate across the number of people dying every year in Britain, around 600,000, that's 150,000 of those who die who have already chosen to donate their organs. Add those whose families are persuaded by care staff to give up their organs after death; subtract an unknown, but significant number, of those who die so decrepit their organs are unusable. Even allowing for transplant failure and rejection, that still leaves a lot of organs (particularly as bodies can be harvested for hearts, corneas, kidneys, livers and so on, helping several rather than a single recipient).
Yet, according to the NHS site, as of January 21, only 7,560 people were awaiting transplants. The British Medical Association says "hundreds die" every year for want of organs. Over sixty percent are said to agree with the government's proposal to recycle organs: Would legislative expense not be better spent persuading this number and more to opt-in to the system of voluntary donation, rather than forcing others to opt out?
And what next? Doctors make regular calls for blood donors. Most of us could live without a pint or two of our own: Will we be ordered to report monthly to our local blood banks?
One cannot help but conclude that the government's proposals are designed to extend its jurisdiction over our bodies. It is a strange thought, that less than a decade ago an organ donation campaigner argued against calls to make the body public property, saying it went against British culture: In these unreasonable days, it seems the unthinkable isn't just possible, it's likely.
