Organ donation incentive plans labelled 'crass' (From Oxford Mail)

Organ donation incentive plans labelled 'crass'

7:21pm Tuesday 20th April 2010 in News By Amanda Williams

THE county’s organ donors have labelled radical plans to boost donor numbers as crass and pointless.

A report published by an independent think tank suggested allowing registered donors to jump the queue should they need organs, handing out money, as well as commemorative mugs and T-shirts for signing up.

Offering the families of dead donors money for funeral expenses has also been suggested by the Nuffield Council as an incentive to encourage people to become donors.

Despite 16.5 million donors signing up to the register, there is a nationwide shortage of organs, with 1,000 people dying while waiting for a vital organ each year.

Two years ago, the Oxford Mail launched a campaign to encourage people to become donors, which attracted 20,000 new names to the list.

But those already signed up to the organ donor scheme, and those who have received organ donations, questioned the ethics behind an incentive scheme.

Geraldine Grant, 52, from Kennington, was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 24 and underwent a kidney transplant in 2007.

She said she did not believe money, or “gimmicky” mugs or T-shirts were a suitable incentive. She said: “It is very crass. People should sign up because they want to help someone, not because they are getting a physical reward.”

She added: “They should be running more campaigns like the Oxford Mail’s Organ Donor Campaign.

“Letting people know about statistics, and how donations have positively changed people’s lives should encourage people to sign up.”

When Matt Trinder, from Abingdon, was told he needed a new kidney because of a rare disorder, his mother Diana Berry, 53, set out to help.

After discovering she was not a match for her son, she signed up to a pioneering exchange programme which allowed her to donate an organ to another person, whose friend or relative then donates a kidney to Matt.

She disagreed with the proposals, adding: “It would be pointless. People should want to do it, not be bribed.”

Allen Newey, 66, is Europe’s longest surviving kidney transplantee, undergoing surgery at the Churchill Hospital. He said: “It cheapens the whole thing. I don’t agree with it at all.”