11th Oct 11
Funeral costs of organ donors ‘should be paid’
by Paul Russell
Hope in death: paying for the funerals of organ donors could encourage more to sign up
Hope in death: paying for the funerals of organ donors could encourage more to sign up
People who donate organs should have their funeral costs covered by the NHS, suggested a medical ethics think-tank.
Doing so could significantly raise the amount of donations made each year without compromising the motivation of the act, concluded the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in its report published on Monday.
The director of the centre, Hugh Whittall, said that it was important to think radically, as demand for organs outstripped supply by a long way. He explained that 8,000 people are at present on a transplant list and that three people die each day while waiting for an organ.
Despite 29 per cent of the country’s population being listed on the Organ Donor Register, the amount of people who donate organs upon death remains relatively small, with just 1,010 doing so in 2010. A common issue is uncertainty among families about whether an individual not listed on the register would have actually wanted to donate.
Cambridge University’s professor of social anthropology, Dame Marilyn Strathen, who chaired the group studying the issue, said that paying for organ donors’ funerals would be ethically justified, insisting it could be society’s way of recognising them. She added that they feel it is worth trying a pilot scheme to see what the public’s response is.
The working party has yet to propose a concrete amount for the contribution towards each funeral, many of which end up costing thousands of pounds. Keith Rigg, a member of the group and a consultant transplant surgeon, suggested a minimum amount of £1,500.
He also pointed out that the proposal would only offer a funeral payment to families of donors who were already listed on the register. The initiative would be to have it as part of the offer for people to consider before signing up. The group conceded that this was to avoid the ethically problematic scenario of offering to pay for funerals directly to grieving relatives who would otherwise not grant permission.
There are objections to the proposal. The co-director of Patient Concern, Roger Goss, said that there are fears that offering funeral payments in return for organs might result in families pressurising sick relatives to donate as it could save thousands of pounds.
The British Medical Association’s medical ethics committee’s chairman, Dr Tony Calland, said the proposal was an interesting idea. However, he added that the BMA still has the opinion that a good way to raise the number of organ donations is to introduce an opt-out system with safeguards, adding that they will keep lobbying for this.
In addition, there is the question of whether paying for donors’ funerals would be cost effective when many of them may have donated anyway.
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