# Organ donation and authorising medical treatment - are you aware?



## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

organ donation { here everyone is by law an organ donor and unless they have opted out in the official way } and authorising medical treatment. The latter is an interesting point which I had not even thought of before: if you are incapacitated so that you cannot authorise your own medical treatment the power to do so on your next of kin, and not upon a friend or partner. For example, a partner could not authorise any treatment for you if you were unconscious. The solution is a Procuracão ( Power of Attorney ) whereby you authorise the persons named in it to authorise your medical treatment when you are not able to do so for yourself.


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## JohnBoy (Oct 25, 2009)

Thank you so much for posting that Siobhán. Very useful information that I had no idea of but it raises several questions for me.

What if the person you give power of attorney to is also incapacitated at the same time? You may both be involved in the same accident for instance. What happens then? 

What happens in the case of a person who cannot immediately be identified?

Are we supposed to carry the power of attorney with us just in case?

I think that there may be a lot more to this than we know at the moment.

In a similar vein. Coincidentally, today I realised that I had not entered my ICE details into my mobile phone. For those not aware, ICE stands for In Case of Emergency and gives First Responders and hospital personnel a way of contacting loved ones or next of kin in an emergency. The system was devised by a Paramedic with East Anglia Ambulance Service about 10 years ago and is best described on this website. This now has international usage so emergency workers here should be aware of it.


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## OrangesYeah (Apr 22, 2014)

Does a spouse count as next of kin?


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

OrangesYeah said:


> Does a spouse count as next of kin?



Yes of course


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