Alternative Choice of Organ Donation in Thailand: A Study Opt-Out and Mandate Choice System

Abstract

Currently, the number of patients who suffer from various diseases has increased drastically. The patients in need of organ transplantation are rapidly growing with demand. Organ transplantation is the best treatment that provides the opportunity to save lives and improve the quality of the recipients’ lives. However, obstacles to organ transplantation that is a shortage of organ donors. Organ donation is the process that the organ donor, alive or dead, has permitted to transplant their organ to another person. Thailand uses a voluntary system or so-called “opt-in” that relays on the express consent of the donor to donate an organ. As for Thailand, organ donation has no specific laws but only the basic principles provided by the Medical Council and the Red Cross. The problem shortages of organ donation have many factors that influence demand such as religion, culture, emotion. The author will study an alternative of organ donation from the United States of America, Singapore, and France to analyze these countries' regulations and theories related the opt-in, opt-out, and mandate choice systems to solve organ deficiency problems and increase organ donor rates.