March 7, 2016 9:00am by David Farrar

Why are driver license details not even checked by doctors?

Doctors did not check patients’ driving licences “because we don’t consider it informed consent. The family should be asked irrespective of what’s on the driver’s licence”.

This was despite research from Australia showing knowledge of a deceased family member’s preference to donate drastically increased the chance of their family providing consent.

This is appalling and points to an easy to make change that could apply immediately.

Whether or not families should be able to over-ride the wishes of the deceased is one issue – and one that would need a law change.

But even without a law change, surely it should be automatic that the decision of the deceased should be checked, and communicated to the family.

Why the hell do we even collect all these preferences on the license, when doctors say they don’t even bother to check? It;s outrageous.

Think how many more donors e could get just by making it automatic for a check to be done and communicated to the family.

You can indicate that you want to be a donor on your driver’s licence, but that can still be overruled posthumously by your family. In fact, unless your family asks, doctors won’t even check your driver’s licence.

I appreciate the issue of a law change is one with pros and cons and needs some consideration.

But a simple instruction that in a case where donation is viable, the licence must be checked and the preference of the deceased communicated to the family can be done quickly and could have a significant boost to donation rates.