Saving lives is the highest value
The public debate was expected, as in most cases in which proposals that touch the very essence of our humanity, especially as Jews and Israelis, are raised. According to the revolutionary plan by Health Minister Yael German and the National Transplant Center (ADI), an amendment to the existing organ transplant law will stipulate that all Israelis who renew their driver's licenses will automatically be placed in the database of organ donors, unless they explicitly request otherwise.
While words like "coercion," "undemocratic" and "insensitive invasion of the private sphere" have been thrown around, my thoughts primarily go to the people whose lives will be saved, and I support this proposal.
It is excruciating for each of us to think of the moment when, God forbid, we might need to decide whether to donate a loved one's organs, especially when we, or the doctors, believe there is perhaps a tiny sliver of hope left to save them. Miracles have happened, and miracles will happen in the future, but the issue of organ donations in Israel is worth advancing in all possible aspects, if for nothing else than because this is about saving lives and the sanctity of life -- the highest possible value, especially in Judaism.
The issue of adding this amendment undoubtedly raises ethical questions, such as whether it will be "worth it" for the doctors, and the big money organ transplant industry behind them, to save a person's life or to decide it would be more "economical" to use his organs instead for others who need them.
It is impossible not to think of countries like China or others in eastern Europe, where the dark business of organ trafficking circulates billions of dollars. However, we can still hope that Israel's health system and the ethical standards of its doctors can be trusted, even if we have been exposed on occasion to corrupt doctors gone astray.
Alongside the concerns about the risks involved in expanding the organ donor pool as part of a state-mandated regulation, as opposed to a purely personal choice, I still believe that advancing legislation on this matter is the right thing to do, especially considering that most people who have not signed an ADI card yet have not done so because of a lack of awareness or time, bureaucratic or technical problems or simple laziness.
Too many people, who are cognizant of the importance of organ donation and support it, have not signed an ADI card just because they did not know that all they needed was to pick up a phone, or because they never came across an ADI representative at the right time.
It goes without question that provisions must be legislated to exempt a person, or their family, from donating organs if they so choose, and that the compassion, caution and care required in such situations are safeguarded. After all, each person has the right over his or her own body and organs.
And, of course, any legislation on the matter must be made with all possible level-headed sensitivity, if nothing else so that cases like that of the late soccer player Avi Cohen, who signed an ADI card but whose family refused his will and refused to donate his organs, do not sadly repeat themselves.
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