One in five willing organ donors in Ontario have their wishes vetoed by family — and doctors don’t argue

NATIONAL POST | Blair Bingham

No transplant doctor in Canada has ever gone against a family's wishes despite a signed organ donor card.

Toronto — When Heather Talbot saw a police cruiser park outside her home, she braced herself for terrible news. After explaining her 22-year-old son Jonathan was involved in a car crash, police officers rushed Talbot to the intensive care unit at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital, where doctors told her he was brain dead.

“I remember wondering if they would ask about organ donation,” recalls Talbot, who was against the idea.

It wasn’t until a nurse asked about Jonathan’s own wishes that his sister Emily spoke up. The two had gotten their drivers licences together, and she recalled Jonathan signing the organ donor card that came with it.

“I wanted to respect his decision,” says Talbot.

Talbot came to accept her son’s wishes, but often, families feud over whether to respect previously declared wishes around organ donation. Continue reading

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