Opting out off organ donation - a helpful proposal?

So our Prime Minister thinks it should be assumed that we are all willing to donate our organs to medicine unless we explicitly opt-out or our families object.

Though I'm not a great fan of yet another state intrusion into a pretty damn personal realm, on consideration I think I'm coming round to this idea.

After all, symmetry and reciprocity are always good ingredients for any ethical recipe. And it seems to me that there is an implicit assumption that we would be willing organ recipients, though of course some have principled objections to that, too.

So perhaps it would be helpful, in more ways than one, to include on the opt-out form this second question:

Would you be willing to accept a donated organ if it was determined that you needed one but, due to unconsciousness or other problems, you were not in a position to give your consent?

Personally, I'm willing to donate. It's right there, in writing. So I feel free to accept. And to indulge myself with perhaps odiously smug comments on the matter.

In praise of sleep

Much as Johnny is good-natured and agreeable, we still haven't mastered the business of getting him to bed promptly. (This is more important than it may sound to those who haven't experienced it - the parental partnership needs time spent together before parental exhaustion sets in.)

I read somewhere that childrens' reluctance to sleep was a form of separation anxiety - something that had never occurred to me, but made intuitive sense.

So now, when he's had his (at least) three stories, this is what I tell him:

If you shut your eyes tight
and look very carefully
you just might see
the moon and the stars

It seems to help - in fact he's prompted me for it a couple of times recently when I forgot.

What little spells have helped you with your children?

And did your parents have any for you?