Assumed consent?

Our Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he believes everyone should be automatically placed on the organ donor register.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Brown declared his support of the proposal to permit hospitals to remove organs from anyone when they die, unless they explicitly "opt out" of the scheme beforehand, or their families object.

At present there over 8,000 people on the UK organ transplant list and it is claimed that if these new proposals were implemented, the number of organs available would double, saving thousands of lives. However, several patients groups are against the proposal, arguing that it is not up to the state to decide what becomes of our bodies when we die.

I have serious misgivings about this idea. Saving dying people is commendable, but assumed consent should not be perceived as consent.
To donate one's body parts should remain a personal decision - not a decree issued from our government.
Organs to be taken without consent
PM backs automatic organ donation