INTRODUCTION
Organ donation is the process of transplanting organs from a donor to a recipient who is either ill or has organs which do not function properly. The purpose of organ donation is to improve ‘the recipients life’ (Better Health Channel, 2015) and enable them to live longer. The Federal Government plays an important role in improving the rates of organ donation as well as providing substantial information to the community so that they are able to make an informed decision. The Federal Government is also responsible for providing funds for organisations which deal with organ donation. Funds are most commonly utilised for the transporting of organs, costs of surgery and employment of organ donation specialists. The Government is required …show more content…
This was achieved by raising community awareness to promote organ donation and developing skills for health professionals to maximise the number of successful transplantation. The Federal Government focussed on nine key elements which were to establish a national authority and organisation which would be responsible for organ donations, establish hospital staff who would be specialists in organ donation, provide additional funds for hospitals, promote organ donation through professional education and awareness, create a supportive environment for donor families, begin additional initiatives which would include living donation programs and to create a ‘safe, equitable and transparent donation and transplantation network’ (DonateLife, 2014). Aside from the current policy there is a separate system which dictates who is a donor and who can become one. This system is known as the opt-in system as opposed to the opt-out system. This system is where ‘people have to actively sign up to register to donate their organs after death’ (MediLexicon International, 2015). Any Australian citizen who wishes to register to be an organ donor will be required to complete a registration form online or in person. Their decision …show more content…
There are two main aspects which need to be addressed for the improving of organ donation rates. These two reasons are people not registering to be a donor and the lack of family consent for donation to proceed. To address these two issues the suggestions that will be forward are to change our current opt-in system to the opt-out system and remove the element of family consent, otherwise known as the ‘hard opt-out’ system. These solutions would fall under the Ottawa Charter Action area, Building Healthy Public Policy and is a long-term solution for the on-going issue. The opt-out system has been quite successful in other countries such as Spain, it is the ‘world leader as it has 32 dpmp’ (The Conversation Media Group, 2015). There is a significant difference in comparison of the two systems as reported ‘when participants had to consent-in only 42% chose to do so while if they had to opt-out 82% agreed to donate (The Conversation Media Group, 2015). An investigation was conducted to identify if there was a significant difference in the donation rates of a country running an opt-in system compared to one with an opt-out system. Results from the investigation concluded ‘deceased donor rates (per-million population) were higher in opt-out than opt-in consent countries’ (BioMed Central Ltd, 2015).
Organ donation is the process of transplanting organs from a donor to a recipient who is either ill or has organs which do not function properly. The purpose of organ donation is to improve ‘the recipients life’ (Better Health Channel, 2015) and enable them to live longer. The Federal Government plays an important role in improving the rates of organ donation as well as providing substantial information to the community so that they are able to make an informed decision. The Federal Government is also responsible for providing funds for organisations which deal with organ donation. Funds are most commonly utilised for the transporting of organs, costs of surgery and employment of organ donation specialists. The Government is required …show more content…
This was achieved by raising community awareness to promote organ donation and developing skills for health professionals to maximise the number of successful transplantation. The Federal Government focussed on nine key elements which were to establish a national authority and organisation which would be responsible for organ donations, establish hospital staff who would be specialists in organ donation, provide additional funds for hospitals, promote organ donation through professional education and awareness, create a supportive environment for donor families, begin additional initiatives which would include living donation programs and to create a ‘safe, equitable and transparent donation and transplantation network’ (DonateLife, 2014). Aside from the current policy there is a separate system which dictates who is a donor and who can become one. This system is known as the opt-in system as opposed to the opt-out system. This system is where ‘people have to actively sign up to register to donate their organs after death’ (MediLexicon International, 2015). Any Australian citizen who wishes to register to be an organ donor will be required to complete a registration form online or in person. Their decision …show more content…
There are two main aspects which need to be addressed for the improving of organ donation rates. These two reasons are people not registering to be a donor and the lack of family consent for donation to proceed. To address these two issues the suggestions that will be forward are to change our current opt-in system to the opt-out system and remove the element of family consent, otherwise known as the ‘hard opt-out’ system. These solutions would fall under the Ottawa Charter Action area, Building Healthy Public Policy and is a long-term solution for the on-going issue. The opt-out system has been quite successful in other countries such as Spain, it is the ‘world leader as it has 32 dpmp’ (The Conversation Media Group, 2015). There is a significant difference in comparison of the two systems as reported ‘when participants had to consent-in only 42% chose to do so while if they had to opt-out 82% agreed to donate (The Conversation Media Group, 2015). An investigation was conducted to identify if there was a significant difference in the donation rates of a country running an opt-in system compared to one with an opt-out system. Results from the investigation concluded ‘deceased donor rates (per-million population) were higher in opt-out than opt-in consent countries’ (BioMed Central Ltd, 2015).