West Midlands: Your comments...

Nick Watson The Politics Show West Midlands

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Some of your comments on today's programme...

Calls:

Dr Lynne Jones has suggested that inadequate public transport in the region is a consequence of poor leadership. She is quite right. What she fails to mention is that it is her government which has shown the lack of leadership and commitment as it continues to refuse to fund or support any of the transport infrastructure proposals behind which our region has for some time now been united. Her government is unrealistic and naive if it seriously thinks that the conurbation can subject itself to rhe conseqences of congestion charging on the basis of its current, inadequate transport infrastructure. Politicians seem to take great delight in comparing the West Midlands unfavourably with Greater Manchester. When we have a public transport network which is comparable to that which operates in Greater Manchester, we might be in a position to reconsider congestion charging.
Tony Millinger, England

Not all doctors are dedicated to give their best to the living! Especially if kudos/money is there. The Blood Transfusion Service make money from from blood donors by selling/exporting blood products, how long before a simular market begins for organs
P Durkan, UK

I am on the donor register, but I object to a law coming out to tell me what I had to do with my body. My body is my own - it does not belong to the state.
Mrs Harris, Church Stretton

I am overwhelmingly in support of presumed consent.
Mrs Deborah Frost, Derby

I'm in a family that has had a long strain of cancer. If organs are to be whipped out and placed into other bodies, there's a strong risk that the cancer strain could be transferred to others. You could inadvertently be giving other people that same problem.
Irene, Cannock Wood

I think that people should be required to opt-out rather than opt-in.
Mrs Matthews, Shropshire

Of course there should be a system where you are automatically registered for organ donation. It is better to opt-out of the system rather than opt-in.
Cynthia, Stourbridge

I am a liver transplant patient. I think they should be able to take organs so that there are more available for people. People don't realise that when you're in that situation you're desperate for them. People that haven't had transplants don't know the consequences.
Gaynor, Burton-on-Trent

I firmly believe in presumed consent. I'm all for it.
Mrs Richards, Dudley

My wife died just under 12 months ago and her organs were used after she died. There are many good things that come out of organ transplants and people should be made aware of this.
Roger Dobson, UK

Organ donation shouldn't be made compulsory. My family don't mind donating our organs, but certainly not for people who have wasted theirs on things like drink. I'd therefore like to know who my organs were being donated to.
Anon, Banbury

How do you test that organs are suitable for transplant? What if a person had been on drugs?
Marjorie, Ludlow

Forcing people to accept that they should donate their organs is completely against people's human rights. It just isn't right that you should dictate to people what happens to their bodies after they've died.
Trevor, Shropshire

I do not agree with this idea. What people don't realise is that the physical body is also a spiritual body. Death is a gentle process on both sides; physical and spiritual. It should not be rushed by removing organs straight away.
Elizabeth, West Midlands

I absolutely don't agree with the opt-out system. I lost both of my parents to kidney failure, who I love dearly. It just wouldn't be right.
Anne, Staffordshire

I am very keen that people are able to have as many transplants as possible. I think that the family of the deceased also benefit tremendously.
Chris, Lichfield

Everyone should join the donor register unless they decide to opt-out.
Robert, Stourport-on-Severn

The idea to put everyone on the donor register is a very dangerous one. It is in breach of everyone's human rights. It should be done in a better way than that.
Sylvia, Shropshire

E-Mails

Presumed consent is just a national ID database by the back door. The Tories are saying they will scrap the ID card proposals but this database is likely to have everyone on it whichever way they register or don't. In other words it is a national database of all adults whether you like it or not.
Kris, UK

I was under the assumption that my body was mine! I am an organ donor but if politicians force me to go on this list, I will opt out. The only person that has the right to decide on what happens to my body is me - not some politician. Introduce this and it will not have the result they expect. Now they are trying to gain control over our bodies . . . whatever next?
Mick, England

I have carried a Donor Card since the age of 14 and went on the National Donor Register because it was my choice to do so. Age 62 now, I am not prepared to accept a situation which will presume that I or any person is a donor without my specific consent. Consequently I will remove my name from the Register on the day this becomes Law. I will, however continue to carry a donor card.
Lorrence, Worcestershire

As a crew member of the Donor bus and while out with the bus we get people coming up to us and say I have been meaning to sign up to the donor register but have never got round to it. I had a heart transplant 9 years ago. What we need to is educate people on the importance of being an organ donor.
Andy, West Midlands

I have and carry a donor card and my family all know that I wish to donate organs if anything happens to me, but if I am automatically put on some register by politicians I will opt out. Every day we seem to be told more and more what we must do, what we must think etc. At the end of the day it is my body and nobody will force me into giving it away. More effort should be put into signing people up as a donor. Being forced into this will only backfire. What next - forced blood donorship?
Mike Perkins, England

Presumed consent won't work. Anyone who puts our names on a register like this without our prior permission will be entering dangerous ethical territory. The amount of money that would then be spent on this presumed consent system would be better spent on medical research.
Richard Watt, UK

On the subject of NHS Organ Donor Registration why not include a tick box on the Electoral Register so that individuals can express their wishes to consent to Registration when they receive their Electoral Registration Forms from Local Councils.
Anne & David Parkes, England

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