I'm not a fan of Gordon Brown but for once I applaud him for opening the debate on introducing a new system of organ donation in this country.

My wife and I have both agreed to donate our bits and pieces for the good of others, but reading the comments from the public, so many seem utterly opposed to the idea.

This unhelpful and selfish attitude is so symptomatic of what's gone very wrong in Britain. There are many selfish people in the UK concerned only for themselves, and everyone else can go hang (unless they can be used or manipulated for their own purposes).

The bitter fact remains that people in the UK are dying needlessly on a waiting list for organ donation.
I wonder what the reaction would be from the vast majority of people who reject donating their organs if they were the ones needing a transplant.

Gordon Brown says he supports the proposal to allow hospitals to remove organs from anyone when they die, unless they explicitly opt out beforehand or their families object.

I would go further than Gordon Brown. Yes, allow anyone to opt out, but a family veto perpetuates the problem of allowing emotion to get in the way of a transplant.

If a person has opted to be a donor, that is a closure on the subject. We should never forget it's a life and death matter for the person needing the organ.

The individual who has given consent owns his/her body, not relatives, and relatives have no right to decide whether another patient lives or dies – and that's the bottom line in their attempting to withdraw consent.

Many of the writers in the public debate seem to be worried that doctors will not fight to save a patient quite so hard if they could get their hands on a healthy organ needed for another patient.

I might suggest the possibility of a doctor/nurse not fighting quite so hard to save the life of a selfish person who has opted out of not giving organs for transplant.

People do have concerns, and these are amplified when we hear of dodgy goings on in very small parts of the medical world, and there must be every possible safeguard against any abuse.

Another comment amused (no saddened) me – a person didn't want his organs donated to a private hospital, only to NHS hospitals.

The person didn't want to help a rich queue-jumping patient and didn't want to aid the profits of a private hospital.

Another wrote: Not only do I disagree with opting out but I also disagree with opting in, I do not agree with swapping organs, I feel this debate should be about making it illegal to do transplants.

That should get the tongues wagging by all the self-rightous people who think they have a right to my body when I die."

Makes you glad to be part of the human race, doesn't it!

Expensive goods better? Rubbish!

A survey in America amused me and demonstrated yet again just how silly people can be.

Bottles of wine were offered to people – one being labelled $10 and the other $100. It was explained to people that one bottle was cheap plonk, the other expensive wine.

In fact they were the same – but it was amazing how many people thought the expensive bottle tasted so very much better.

Perfumes, jewellery, clothes, handbags, it's all the same, certain people won't buy unless the price tag is enormous – countless times more than the product costs to make and is actually worth.

It all shows how silly people can be easily parted with their money.