Must feel strange to have opted in many years ago and now it’s “just„ the default.
This rule has been decided by elected leaders after many discussions. As a citizen you opt in by default into many things that have been different in the older times. School, health care, the BBC, etc. some of which you even cannot opt out at all.
Why should organ donation be treated differently?
No, it does not feel strange that it is the default, as I would love it if more people abided by the same moral code as myself which is why I contribute in a free exchange of ideas and advocate for people to volunteer both in terms of organ and blood donations – the latter I am sadly not allowed to do in the UK due to my type 1 diabetes.
It is however strange to me that rather than to communicate clearly with its populace, improve/innovate in terms of recruitment methods, and generally “educate” the populace, a government reaches for an option that I would consider morally dubious and potentially harmful to the overall opinion on organ donation further down the line whenever that inevitable case comes up when a donation is carried out without properly seeking consent. I say inevitable here, because out of the three countries (Sweden, Japan, and the UK) I have lived in long enough to form an opinion, the UK government is by far the worst and its institutions the most poorly managed.
As for “elected”, the UK has a very large expat community and many of us are well over the 12-month limit and are being “volunteered” as donors without being close to having the right to vote for the political body that enacted this legislation. Make of that what you will.
This rule has been decided by elected leaders after many discussions. As a citizen you opt in by default into many things that have been different in the older times. School, health care, the BBC, etc. some of which you even cannot opt out at all. Why should organ donation be treated differently?