Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 27th October 2024

Dear Friends,

Since the law changed in 2020, adults in the UK now have to opt out of organ donation when they die, as they will otherwise be deemed to have agreed to it. (There are exclusions to those deemed suitable for organ donation – old age not being one of them, interestingly.)

All good, for obvious reasons. However, families have the right to refuse it at the time of their relative’s death, and many choose to do this at such an extremely distressing moment. In fact, the consent rate has gone down by 8% since the law changed. Last year, 408 patients died in the UK on the transplant list.

What can we Quakers do about this? It is, as I see it, a final act of service we can offer to others. We may feel squeamish, as might our families, but surely the ability to save lives beyond our own deaths must propel us to act?

We need to be clear about our wishes: start a discussion with our families that we wish to be organ donors and talk about which organs we and they would be comfortable for us to donate. This could perhaps take a very painful decision out of their hands, and ultimately be a comfort to them, knowing that their loved-one’s death could transform another’s life.

Perhaps we could also open up a discussion with others of our acquaintance on this subject? In the busyness of life, this may seem to be a non-urgent matter…..but being prepared now could avoid a great deal of distress at the end of our lives.

Advices & Queries 29 ends with the sentence: ‘Pray that in your final years you may be enabled to find new ways of receiving and reflecting God’s love’.

Veryan Greenwood

on behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Tim Pitt-Payne, Caroline Pybus, Theresa Samms and Nancy Wall)