The Debate: Taking Tissue: Should Doctors Always Ask? - NO Enormous Burden on Relative at Difficult Time

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Byline: Dr Peter A.Rowe, chairman of British Transplant Society Ethics Committee

ONE of the main provisions of the new legislation is to change the existing law to require explicit consent for organ or tissue donation.

The Bill provides for the same processes to apply to both organ and tissue donation for transplantation and organ or tissue retention for diagnosis of disease. The Society believes that to protect patients the processes of donation and retention need very different regulation.

The motives,purpose, circumstances and outcomes of organ or tissue donation are quite distinct from those of organ or tissue retention.

For organ donation and …