人体器官移植：假如不事先提出反对就被认定自动捐献？

金笔译自 CNN.COM

下图：英国现首相 Gordon Brown


英国首相 Gordon Brown 周日表示，他支持只要死者生前没有表示反对，医院可以随意在死者身上摘取器官供移植使用这项计划。

发表在英国周日报纸上的一篇文章中，Brown 说因为捐助器官的不足，每年大约有 1000 名病人因得不到移植器官而死亡。而拟议中的这项改革措施将会改善这一情形，Brown 并称这一 "情形" 为 "可以避免的悲剧"。

根据 Brown 的文章，英国的现状是每年有大约 8000 名病人在等待器官移植，但每年大约只有 3000 名病人得到器官。

Brown 说，"我们中间很多人都有朋友或家庭成员因器官移植而得到好处，或者是悲剧性的，因为没有及时得到移植器官而死亡。"

"我们可以，并且必须采取措施，避免这类悲剧的发生。"

目前英国的现行制度是，器官捐献者必须在生前签立志愿书，这样他们死后，身上的器官才会被摘取。大约有一千五百万个志愿者 (约占总人口的四分之一) 已经签立了志愿书。

但是 Brown 说，他支持将现行制度修改为自动捐献。即只要死者生前没有反对，或者家属提出反对，医院将自动认定死者为志愿者。

拟议中的这项改革措施有点类似西班牙的现行制度，Brown 说，在西班牙，大约每百万人群中有 35 名死者的器官将被移植他用。在美国，这个比率是 25，而在目前英国，每百万人群中只有 13 名死者的器官将被移植他用。(这是因为即使是自愿，供体的器官还得根据每个人的组织抗原系统是否配对，寻找到适合的接受者，才能进行器官移植，而配对的可能性很底。金笔注)

按照西班牙法律，死者自动被认定是器官捐献志愿者。但是医院还必须征得家属的同意才能摘取器官。因此在西班牙，医院里通常指定的管理官员，他们通常在死者死亡后不久征询家属，以获取同意。

Brown 说他撰文的目的是希望能在器官移植问题上引起社会阶层 "严肃的讨论"，在英国不少团体或个人，因为种种原因，反对器官移植，他们认为器官的捐助应该由病人或家属自己决定。

Brown 最后说，"这是一个十分敏感的话题，各种观点都应当被认真对待。我提出来是想引起辩论，因为可以肯定，社会上有不少必须认真思考的疑虑。"

下图：可供移植的人体器官


原文如下：

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he supports plans to allow hospitals to take dead patients' organs without their prior consent.

Gordon Brown says the shortage of transplant organs is "an avoidable human tragedy we can and must address."

Writing in a British newspaper Sunday, Brown said the change was needed to cover a shortfall in donors which led to more than 1,000 people in Britain dying each year awaiting transplants, a situation he called an "avoidable human tragedy."

In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, he said there were currently more than 8,000 people in the country awaiting organ donation but only 3,000 transplants were carried out each year.

"Many of us will have friends and family members who have benefited from transplant surgery, or - tragically - who have endured the agonizing wait for a life-saving organ that did not become available in time," the prime minister wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

"That is an avoidable human tragedy we can and must address," he added.

Under the present system people must sign up to an organ donor register if they want to give up their organs after they die. A total of 14.9 million people -- around 24 per cent of the population -- are on the register.

However, Brown said he backed moving to a system of "presumed consent" whereby a dead person's organs would automatically be available for transplant unless individuals had opted out of the national register or family members objected.

The proposals are closely modeled on the donor system in Spain where Brown said around 35 people per million had their organs used by hospitals. This compares with 13 donors per million in Britain and 25 per million in America, he added.

Although in Spain consent is presumed by law, families are still asked to give their permission for the donation to go ahead.

The system is managed by dedicated transplant co-ordinators who talk to grieving relatives, often within a few hours of death, to seek their consent.

Brown said he wanted to start "a serious debate" about the issue of organ donation, which remains contentious especially among many faith groups and patients' rights bodies who argue the decision should be left to the patients and their families alone.

"It is a sensitive issue, and one on which many different points of view need to be heard. I want to start a genuine debate, and I recognize that there will be legitimate concerns that need to be heard," Brown wrote.

[金笔]

说是免费移植，但还是要付很昂贵的手续费，前几年是有黑市现行，现在似乎杜绝了。

[云耳]

好家伙，政府把你死后也管上了，他们这么弄，整出来的器官是卖钱呢，还是免费移植呀？