How can we get families of people who have died after cardiac arrest or who have been declared brain dead to give informed consent to the removal of organs from their loved one? Although it is not prohibited by any religion, the act is strictly taboo, which consists of taking from the body of a dead person to perpetuate the life of another. To graft, you must first open and take. You have to subtract. It is a question, for those close to the deceased who would not have registered during their lifetime on the national register of refusals, to consider these intrusive gestures at the same time as the pain of the loss. For caregivers, it is necessary to watch for death to make it recede. For a deceased donor, five to seven lives can be saved. Terrible and wonderful countdown.
In France, in the name of national solidarity, everyone is presumed to be a donor. But if 80% of French people say they are in favor of donating, only 47% of them have spoken about it to their loved ones. So it’s up to the medical teams to take over to explain without conflict, to discuss with the families so that the wishes of the deceased can be carried out. The task is arduous: in 2023, the opposition rate has reached a record in France at 36.1%.
Also, it is the duty of public policies to reduce this opposition to organ donation. One of the avenues for its revaluation could be to place the sample more naturally in the patient’s care pathway, while considering the transplant as a right in its own right. The possibility of refusal, which guarantees the full freedom of an agreement, must be preserved. It must no longer constitute an obstacle to the care of the 10,000 patients registered each year on the waiting list.