Remember that I mentioned a backlash? ...It is happening
now.
MORE SEEK ORGAN DONATION OPT-OUT FORMS AFTER HOSPITAL SCUFFLE
Wednesday February 28, 2007
Tan Hui Leng
[email protected]
THE heart-breaking scenes earlier this month, when a brain-dead
man's
family clashed with hospital staff who wanted to harvest his
organs, have
had an unintended fallout. More residents now appear to be thinking
about
donating their organs and taking concrete steps if they don't want
to.
Requests for opt-out forms have gone up since the much-publicised
incident
at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on Feb 6.
"There has been feedback from hospitals and polyclinics that forms
are
running out and that there are more queries from the public," a
Health
Ministry spokesperson told Today.
While such feedback has been anecdotal so far, an increase in the
number
of those opting out of organ donation is expected.
In the past, many people had dragged their feet on exercising the
opt-out
clause under the Human Organ Transplant Act (Hota) until it was too
late.
Enacted in 1987, the law allows for the mandatory removal of
kidneys if a
person dies in an accident - unless the person has specifically
opted out.
The scheme covers all Singaporeans and Permanent Residents who are
not
Muslim.
The Act was revised in 2004 to include the harvesting of livers,
hearts
and corneas and expanded to cover non-accidental deaths. Between
then and
last month, some 6,000 had opted out of Hota.
The issue made headlines after a 43-year-old crane operator
suffered a
stroke at work and was pronounced brain-dead at SGH on Feb 5.
His family, on learning that his organs might be harvested, first
pleaded
for a 24-hour extension in the hope that he might recover. The
doctors
agreed.
On Feb 6, when he still had not awakened, they sought another
extension.
This time, the doctors decided to harvest the organs as a further
delay
would have rendered them unusable for transplants. The family was
then
involved in a scuffle with the staff.
In the wake of the debate that followed, public hospitals told
Today that
they have seen an increase in the number of requests for the
opt-out
forms.
Changi General Hospital, for one, ran so low on opt-out forms
and
information booklets that they had to ask the Health Ministry for a
"top
up".
At National University Hospital, there have also been "a few
more"
walk-ins a day asking for the forms - up from almost none before
the
incident.
At Alexandra Hospital, staff noted that more forms were being
collected
from the Accident and Emergency than from other departments.
"The biggest problem is usually ignorance," noted chairman of
the
Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, Mdm Halimah
Yacob.
"In a way, it's a good thing that this is being discussed in the
open so
that in the process, the public can hopefully be more informed
about the
issues and understand the subject better."
She suggests better public education to help Singaporeans
understand brain
death and actively engaging religious bodies to inform followers
that
organ donation would not comprise them spiritually.
Spurred by the incident, 55-year-old Mr Loke Siew Meng sent in his
opt-out
form last week.
"Why would you want to stress your family members out?" the
lawyer
reasoned.
National Neuroscience director Associate Prof Lee Wei Ling
reminds,
however, that "whoever opts out, if he or she ever needs an organ,
he or
she goes to the bottom of the waiting list".
"The only alternative is to persuade someone really altruistic to
donate
to you, yet it is not fair to use emotional pressure on loved ones;
or go
overseas to buy one with all the attendant risks."
Meanwhile, Dr Patrick Kee, who works in the hospice sector,
suggests
setting up a select committee be to talk to distressed family
members.
"I think most families are reasonable and would, with some
convincing from
hospital staff, allow the organs to be harvested. So this would not
be
counter-effective for Hota implementation," he told Today.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan is expected to address concerns about
the
Hota in Parliament today.
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