I'm Pretty Sure I Support This

Who knew... From the NYT:

Brain-dead patients in France are presumed to be organ donors unless they have made explicit provisions to the contrary, and approval by next of kin is not normally required. But given the delicacy of the case, the donor's family was consulted about the possible harvesting of part of the donor's face during the initial interviews that are undertaken to ensure that the deceased had not given instructions preventing organ donations.

Comments

[!]

not related to this post but to an earlier one on the Lincoln Group:
http://www.billmon.org/

Read the Land of Lincoln post from Nov. 30th. There is a link to an earlier post made by "Billmon" on July 12th of this year.
While I have not personally read the L.A. Times article, The Whiskey Bar's coverage is top-notchish enough for my half-interested self. Since you are more interested, perhaps Billmon's coverage will be helpful to you.

[Emily]

I had the same reaction. I don't see why adults shouldn't be assumed to have given organ-donor consent unless they legally state another preference. There needs to be more education on this issue, preferably during driver's-ed courses and for learner's-permit and non-driver-ID applicants. They'd be informed that unless they've stated otherwise, they've made their choice--demystifying the process and emphasizing the life-saving potential of donor status--and that they can, of course, revise that choice at any time. It's crazy how many people die because people are ill-informed or negligent about making this explicit.