That’s wonderful! Thank you for giving us all a more personal perspective on it!
Heck, I’m willing to help pay for my grandfather’s health care, and I pretty much hate his guts.
There’s more good people than bad people. Therefore, the probability that any pieces which used to be a part of me will help someone good is higher than the probability that any of it will go to an utter bastich.
Nava, organ donor since her 18th birthday.
It kind of bugs me. I think that organ donors should have preferential treatment when they, themselves, need organs. Much like how blood donors, once they give enough, no longer have to pay for any blood they need to receive.
However, when the situation arises, I’ll be beyond caring. So hey, do whatever you want with my carcass.
Do you mean organ donors that have actually given up a body part?
Or someone who has the organ donor symbol on their driver’s license?
If it’s the former – yeah, that would be kinda cool.
If it’s the latter – I’m thinking a lot of people would suddenly start opting for organ donation next time they’re at the DMV. This would be awesome, too – if being registered as an organ donor carried any legal weight. Last I checked (about 5 years ago, when we learned this stuff in one of my law classes), the person’s family has the final say. You could have a living will saying you want your organs donated and your family can still put a stop to it. (I remember being shocked at this … you would think something signed and notarized would have more weight.)
I thought I’ve seen on TV medical shows (fictional shows) that if you “blow your liver out” from alcoholism that you go down to the bottom of the list of recipients when there’s organs available. Is that the case or no?
If I am dead and don’t need it and somebody else can use it, then fine by me. Otherwise it’d be a total waste. My family knows this is my position, I have made it very clear. Also that I am to be unplugged if things look particularly grim. I should probably get this written up legally but I trust my family to go with my decision. Not a fun conversation but an important one.
I don’t care who gets my bits and pieces. I would hope that if their actions led to the need, getting a transplant would be a serious kick in the pants realization that they need to do things differently from now on. I scared somebody into what is now very long-term sobriety once simply by existing, I can do it again.
And maybe that is the best reason TO donate to someone who wasn’t an organ donor. The people who are potential organ donors are already encouraging others. You can bet that whoever receives your organs will spread the word far and wide.
I don’t care. They can take what they want; I won’t need it anymore.
This statement gave me pause. I also am not allowed to donate blood because I lived in England in the “forbidden years” and I am also an organ donor-to-be. Does the threat of vCJD not exist for organ transplant recipients? If not, why not? Are transplant recipients not as picky as blood donees?
And what the heck does the UK do for blood donations if, presumably, a great many of its would-be donors actually lived in the UK during the “forbidden years”?
The difference is you sign up to be a blood donor when you’re actually about to give blood, so they screen you right then and there. You sign up to be an organ donor long before they get ready to harvest your organs, so there’s no screening done - can you imagine if a DMV employee had to get a full health history from you at each renewal? So they let anyone sign up to be a donor, and try to obtain all the necessary health history if/when you’re actually in a harvest situation.
Adding another voice to the “I don’t care” crowd. I’m no longer there…what right have I to judge who gets my organs?
Although for me, I want to have my entire body donated, not just my organs. And according to Mary Roach’s Stiff, folks who do this don’t have any control over what goes where. I could be used as target practice for the military, or my head could be used to train plastic surgeons how to do face-lifts. This used to bother me, but, again, I’m going to be considerably past caring anyway, so why sweat it?
Presumably I’ll be dead (i.e. Eric Idle won’t be coming out of my refrigerator to tour the universe), and I don’t think a convicted serial killer is going to be high-pri on the organ donor list, so it doesn’t bother me at all.
For that matter if I or someone I loved was in need of an organ and a convicted serial killer donated his and was a match it wouldn’t bother me once to take his. (IIRC some condemned criminals are organ donors; not sure what ramifications this has for means of execution.)
People are basically good. I’m comfortable being an organ donor despite the slim chance that an undeserving asshole will get some of my spare parts. I just don’t see a downside to organ donation.
Another bump for blood donation, please give as often as you can. I need to take my own advice, I’ve only managed to donate once in the last 6 months.
Not much, I’m afraid (in the United States, anyway)—and it means that most organs and tissues end up going to waste, as they’re too badly damaged to use. There are some slight exceptions, though—Gary Gilmore had both corneas harvested after his execution by firing squad.
Would you believe I gave a presentation on the very subject?