Comments on: UPDATED WITH WHITE PAPER/First Maltese citizenship, now Maltese organs: watch out, Joseph Muscat is after your kidneys

By: Liberal

Liberal — Wed, 20 May 2015 10:25:00 +0000

You write: “One can not credibly maintain a claim on the body and its contents that housed the ‘self’ now that that self does not exist any more. You cannot claim your body as yours if you are not there”.

True, but then again, the body is the property of the self while one is alive. It follows that the self has the right to dispose of its property as it sees fit, be it in life or after death.

Given that the body is the self’s property while alive, and given that the self has the right to decide what is to be done with its property when the self ceases to exist (even if it is just burial or cremation), the State would be infringing on the living self’s rights (now) if it plans to go against the property owner’s wishes now or in the future.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Mon, 18 May 2015 18:34:00 +0000

You are so hopelessly misguided. This bill will do away with altruism, precisely because the only freedom given to the individual will be an opt-out, not an opt-in.

Please realise that what is at stake here is not the issue of organ donorship, but of ownership of your own body.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Mon, 18 May 2015 15:19:00 +0000

You nailed it. This is why I object to the bill. Not the organ donation per se, but the more fundamental concept of ownership, and the way it’s been placed on a slippery slope.

If we can opt in by not opting out of organ donations, why not blood? Why not bone marrow? Why not hair? Why not kidneys, which may be taken from a living donor? Why not surrogate wombs? Why not breast milk? Why not sperm? Why not homes? Why not land? Why not cars? Why not bank savings?

Why not render the fat out of corpses to make soap? Why not use the skin for lampshades?

This bill goes contrary to the most cherished concept of human dignity. I stand full square behind the Archbishop, who recognised the fundamental evil of this bill, and of our government official who want to push it through.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Mon, 18 May 2015 14:58:00 +0000

You should be against an opt-out system whatever the government is planning to do with the organs.

The state does not have rights over people’s bodies. It is for people to say that they wish to donate their organs, and not for the state to unilaterally declare that all organs are its property unless the people whose bodies house them fill in a volume of documentation to object.

This is fundamental. It shouldn’t take a lawyer or a philosopher to understand why the shift is wrong.

By: John Borg

John Borg — Mon, 18 May 2015 09:47:00 +0000

Well, it’s as good a way to lose the next election as any other, I guess.

By the way, I am also a blood donor and will probably stop giving blood if this insane intrusion into personal privacy and human rights is allowed to go forward.

Sorry, but I feel that strongly about it.

By: T Borg

T Borg — Mon, 18 May 2015 09:43:00 +0000

I would gladly donate my organs to another person. I will most definitely refuse to donate them to the state, no matter how well meaning the state portrays itself, more so with Labour in government.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Mon, 18 May 2015 09:22:00 +0000

I don’t. The man leased his own family car to the state for his own use, for heaven’s sake.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Mon, 18 May 2015 08:39:00 +0000

Think about this, Matthew S, and then give me your answer:

Should blood donation be made obligatory?

By: James Vella Clark

James Vella Clark — Mon, 18 May 2015 08:21:00 +0000

It’s never a coincidence. But then, perhaps it’s YET ANOTHER new distraction to steer away public attention from the shady dealings concerning Żonqor University of Marsascala.

By: Jo not Muscat

Jo not Muscat — Sun, 17 May 2015 22:25:00 +0000

Reminds me of Robin Cook’s Coma.

It never ever crossed my mind that a piece of fiction might one day become reality.

God help us, but we need to show very strongly our disapproval of Muscat’s disgusting pecuniary attitude towards the environment and now even towards human beings.