Iceland Just Announced That Every Icelander Over The Age Of 18 Automatically Becomes An Organ Donor, People React

After the anatomy class where all the med students have finished their dissection (and they really do use the whoooollle thing from my understanding), at my sister's med school there was a very solemn & moving ceremony for the students which was basically to show gratitude for the generosity of the body donors so that the students could learn and become good at their profession.

...forgive me, but what's the point of, like, not having people automatically be organ donors?

If you or anyone else is interested in the life your body could potentially lead after death, I want to recommend the book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach. It has a section about bodies donated to medical schools but also explores other uses such as crash test dummies and decomposition research. Lots of things you never consider when "donating to science".

There seems to be this weird stigma that people have where they think that if they are an organ donor and the ER folks see that when trying to save their life, that for whatever reason they'll half-ass it so they can get their organs. I've never understood it, but this seems like a good way to handle that. Let people choose not to be helpful postmortem instead of them having to choose to be.

I wanna be one of those bodies that they let rot in strange places to research time of death and decomposition accuracy.

I hope I get, "buried in a drum of bacon grease."

I'm not a fan of having to opt out of something you didn't sign up for in the first place. The onus shouldn't be on the non-consenting party.

I am an organ donor myself, and encourage everyone to be organ donors. However, I know that many people and their families have personal reasons for not wanting to be donors. Despite the ability to opt out, there will still be cases of people who didn't get around to opting out or maybe weren't even aware that they are compulsory donors.

Also, if people with mental illnesses or cognitive disabilities aren't automatically opted out, this raises many ethical issues.

Smart idea. If you care enough to not be an organ donor, you can just opt out. This just increases the pool by adding the folk who don't care. I do believe there should be a clause added for those who could not reasonably be asked to give consent in the first place.

Maybe I'm a moron but why would someone opt out? I'm not looking forward to donating one day but why not keep someone else alive if possible?

This is great! However, this isn't really a novelty, France made this a law long ago. In fact, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Singapore and Spain are some of the countries that already have made this law. Welcome aboard, Iceland!

I have to disagree. While morally I think it is great to have organs more readily available, I think you should NOT automatically be opted in.

My feelings on this stem from the technology industry.

Apps, Windows (Microsoft), browsers, video games, they all automatically opt you in to their information gathering, email sending, text message viewing, invasive "services".

I personally think it should be illegal to have anyone automatically opt me in for anything. Everything should be a default NO until I otherwise give my consent to it.

It also should be illegal to give out other people's information under the guise of "if you recommend 5 friends, you get a free t-shirt". Because then all the sudden I am getting spam calls from Gyms, Window companies, scammers, all because some asshole that has my number decided to put me down as a recommendation. Even asking to take me off lists, I still get calls.

Yes I am an organ donor. Yes I wish more people were. But No, I don't believe anyone should be automatically opted in for anything.

No one should have to spend time, energy, or have to navigate tricky menus just to opt out of something they never agreed to in the first place. Even if it is a simple 5 minutes of your time with an easy to navigate website. Most companies/places bank on people not paying attention/not knowing in the first place.

As long as I can still taxidermy my body when I'm dead, they can have my organs.

It's interesting, because this is actually very similar to their state church system. Icelanders are automatically registered as a member of their mother's church upon birth and have to opt out if they don't want to be registered as a church member. My Icelandic friends and I call it "Christian by default". Leads to a lot of interesting cultural and religious views of what it means to be religious or not. Most people don't unregister, but just never go to church. And the churches registered with the government still receive money from the state for anyone registered as congregants/members. Churches receive roughly $7.00 per month per registered individual - regardless if they regularly attend or not. Only in recent years have people started to actually bother unregistering from their churches.

I heard the majority of donated heads go into plastic surgery schools to be given face lifts and such by students! Check out “Stiff” by Mary Roach. She writes about all aspects of cadavers.

If you are totally against any of your organs being used to save other people's lives - you should discuss it with family and make your wishes clear. dont delay things by making doctors plead with grieving families - because they are unsure what you would have wanted because you never told them

In 11 days I will have been with a transplanted kidney for 9 years. I'm almost 18 now, and if it wasn't for the generosity of another person, I would be dead. I now work for Donate Life and it's awesome! I don't think I can express how important organ donation is. If you want to be an organ donor, you can sign up here (for Americans)

https://www.donatelife.net/register/

We've had this in the Czech republic since forever. Welcome to the civilization? At least some good came out of the commies :D no religion, no reason to opt out ;-)

To be fair it's pretty selfish to demand that your dead body is kept together, you're dead, you're not using it any more. Do you sell your car and get outraged when they want the seats with it?

I know this is the case in many countries, with the exception of the USA. Ethically, people who choose to opt out and not be organ donors should automatically be excluded from receiving organs if the need arrives.

there are things inside me that would be better buried with me

I would donate my body to science but I doubt it would be wanted.
No one wants it while i'm alive, come to think of it.