U.K. Group Rebuffs Plan to Make Every Briton an Organ Donor by Default

A controversial proposal to switch the U.K.'s current system of voluntary organ donation to a system of "presumed consent" was rejected by the UK Organ Donation Taskforce, which said the change would not increase organ donations and could damage patient-doctor as well as donor-recipient relations. Presumed consent would designate everyone as an organ donor unless the individual or the family of the deceased opted out; the current system is just the opposite, harvesting organs only from people who opt in to organ donation. The task force advised against the switch supported by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the British Medical Association (BMA), and several physician groups. Nevertheless, Brown continues to support a presumed consent system.