A new proposal plan to allow hospital doctors to remove vital organs for transplant from dying patients, whether or not they carry Donor Cards, has come under fire from people who are worried they may be sliced open against their will.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced today, that an online registering service was all that was needed to join the donor scheme, rather than long-winded and cumbersome forms.
But several concerned citizens pointed out that it would be possible for under-pressure medics to think that dying patients HAD registered for the scheme when, in fact, due to computer error, THEY HAD NOT.
According to a patient support group, one victim of a car accident last year, had one of his kidneys removed even though he had no donor card, whilst a heart was taken from another - also a non-member of the donor scheme.
Donald Rushton, a relative of the victim of a stabbing, whose liver was transplanted without permission, said:
"It would be easy for a mistake to be made. Computers aren't all they're cracked-up to be. In an emergency situation, it would be the simplest thing in the world for a surgeon to whip the heart out of a dying victim against his or her will.
Like the hearts in question, this has to be stopped."
