Opt In System Persuasive Essay

In an opt-put approach which Rippon (2012) calls an ‘aversive approach’, you would automatically be an organ donor when you are born unless you decide before death to ‘opt-out’. In Canada, we currently have an opt-in approach, which Rippon (2012) calls the ‘presumptive approach’. This means that you need explicit consent from the individual or next of kin before organ removal is allowed. You would then either have to register in a database to become a donor at some point in your life or be given the option when death is approaching (Rippon, 2012).

Evidence has shown that majority of people support organ donation but many fail to register as an organ donor under the current opt-in system (Rippon, 2012). People are also reluctant to move to an …show more content…
In the opt-in system you are legally required to have a witness who is either a minister or a lawyer, which would place a financial burden on the person choosing to donate and therefore would impinge on their freedom to make that decision based on their financial status (Rippon, 2012). Counselors also present the option to donate in an unethical manner by persuading the dying patient or next of kin to donate because it is the normal choice made (Rippon, 2012). This alters their individual autonomy by defaulting to pick the option made by the status quo instead of rationally making their own decision. The counselors tend to approach the patient and his or her family when they are approaching death, which makes them unable to make a rational decision based on the circumstances of the high stress situation (Rippon, 2012). In certain cases the decision to either donate or not donate falls to the next of kin who usually refuses organ donation because they are unsure of what the descendent would have