Over the past few weeks, it's been virtually impossible to open a Brazilian newspaper without coming across columns, if not pages, devoted to the issue of organ donation. The new law was approved last year and attracted a certain amount of discussion at the time, but nothing like the amount of controversy which has surrounded it since it came into force. Brazil is now one of the small number of countries in which the onus is on those who do not want to donate their organs to say so. But many members of the public say they don't trust doctors to wait until they are really dead before removing their organs.

Others object to becoming donors on religious grounds -- and all of these people dislike the idea of having to queue up to register their opposition. However, the fiercest criticisms of the new law have come from the medical profession. The Brazilian Medical Council says it particularly dislikes the fact that doctors are no longer obliged to consult the dead person's family before going ahead with the operation; and they are also concerned that patients at private hospitals may be getting privileged access to available organs.