Routine Inquiry about Organ Donation — An Alternative to Presumed Consent

AS of April 1991, there were 22,842 people in the United States on the waiting lists for organs for transplantation. 1 The list is getting longer each year. Many patients die waiting for organs. Others must be maintained on dialysis for want of a transplantable kidney. It is understandable that some people are growing impatient with the system of voluntary donation embodied in the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act — a law that requires specific consent for donation and that has been in place now for two decades. 2 The idea of presuming that the deceased person would consent to the use of . . .