# Are you an organ donor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 6, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471 "2007-11-06T22:22:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/21 "2007-11-06T23:26:25Z")
I am indeed. The idea kinda squicks me out but I figure that if the occasion ever presented itself, I wouldn’t be in any state to care one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/22 "2007-11-06T23:27:49Z")
Yes. Not only that, they can use my carcass for training/research purposes if it’s useful. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/23 "2007-11-06T23:34:09Z")
Yeah, I am. I’d even let someone take my face for one of those transplants. If they invent the technology to transplant my brain into a robot body, I would do that, and who ever wants a piece of my remaining husk can go nuts. Also a bone marrow donor, but you don’t have to be dead to do that. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/24 "2007-11-06T23:36:03Z")
Once I’m done with my parts, others are welcome to whatever is functional. I’m thinking of having the rest shipped to a medical school. It’s nice to think that I can be of use even after I’m dead. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/25 "2007-11-06T23:38:27Z")
I am and have been since my early 20s. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/26 "2007-11-06T23:41:23Z")
[QUOTE=Queen Bruin] This statement fills me with so much :rolleyes: I really can’t articulate it. So I’m getting cremated with my kidneys out of sheer spite. [/QUOTE] Out of spite? Wow. Other reasons for it is something I can understand but this is beyond my comprehension. Just because a few dickheads made some snide remarks about your motorcycle? Wow. It’s not like you would be depriving those exact same people of their life. My girlfriend is alive today because a young man who was killed by a car hitting him while he was riding his bicycle was thoughtful enough to sign up as an organ donor. Her liver was failing because of a genetic blood clotting disorder, not due to bad lifestyle choices. The doctors told her that she had less than a month left to live when the organ came in. She would have left behind a 15 year old son, both of her parents, a brother and loads of friends. My girlfriend has corresponded with the young man’s mother and so we know that hers was not the only life that he saved. His heart, lungs and kidneys also went out to recipients. I have been signed up to be an organ donor since I was 16. Given that one doesn’t have a religious belief against it, I can’t fathom why one wouldn’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/27 "2007-11-06T23:41:26Z")
Yes - although I did stipulate “not skin”. I may change that it some point, but I would like what’s left to be…somewhat intact? Every other organ can go, though, and I’ve had it like that since I was 17 and got my license. ---
**Author:** ![samm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@samm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samm)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/28 "2007-11-06T23:46:16Z")
[QUOTE=Havik] I’ve asked many people this question, and it seems to me that most don’t want to donate their organs because they think they’ll be allowed to die if they go to the E.R. I think that idea is pretty much dumb, but hey, you never really know I guess. [/QUOTE] I experienced that “pretty much dumb” idea when my best friend was in a car accident and in a coma for months. They did an EEG on her and declared her brain dead after the second week. They couldn’t wait to get her organs. They were begging her family to sign the papers. They told us that no one ever in the world of medical history could ever come back to life if they have a flat EEG reading like hers. Well, two years later, she’s now cruising around in her wheel-chair, talking, typing and riding horses, getting ready to finish her college degree. Long story short, no, I am not an organ donor. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/29 "2007-11-06T23:46:57Z")
Yes, I am. I don’t know if they’d be of much use (I’m _tiny_, and hopefully my death will be something spectacular involving a warehouse full of fireworks or something), but they’re bound to be of more use to someone else after my death. Doesn’t bother me. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/30 "2007-11-07T00:04:32Z")
I’m a donor. Of course, I’m also a smoker, so my heart and lungs may be of limited use. My liver should probably have a warning sticker on it as well (sorry, **si\_blakely** ). But whatever is good, they’re welcome to. Slightly off-topic, but my daugher and I were watching that Frontline episode on undertaking, and spent an hour discussing how baffled we were by the woman who was so worried about her casket being waterproof. I can’t imagine spending a single moment fretting about my corpse getting wet. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/31 "2007-11-07T00:08:21Z")
Once I’m dead, I don’t care. Go ahead and have what you can use. And, come to think of it, due to some weird medical stuff I have going on it might be a good idea to donate what’s left to science. I’ll have to let the family know I’m cool with that. The only requirement I have is that whatever happens to me, no open casket funeral. That creeps me right out. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/94ad74/32.png) [@Only\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/32 "2007-11-07T00:15:44Z")
I’m not an organ donor, nor do I particularly want to be. If I’m going to give my organs to other people, I want something back. Obviously, I want something in advance 😛 So, what’s in it for me? The satisfaction of prolonging a life of a smoker? Nope, if you smoke your lungs to hell, you deserve to die. Horribly. The satisfaction of prolonging a life of a fat bastard that ruined his health in McDonalds? Nope, I actually prefer you dead. Apparently I can’t reserve my organs to people that I find deserving, and exclude people that I despise. So, give me money. You want my organs after I’m dead? Then give me money while I’m still alive. I have something that you want, you better pay the price. If you don’t pay me, you die. This is the deal, take it or leave it. Sounds harsh? Well, perhaps you shouldn’t have flipped me off, then. You know, what goes around, comes around, or something like that. I meet very few strangers that does not grate on my nerves. Total strangers that shout obscenities at me for not picking up my dog’s poo quickly enough. Snarky beggars that object when I don’t give them money. Religious nutters that bother me at home. Romanian scum that tries to sell me “gold” jewellery at too-good-to-be-true prices. Nope, I prefer to keep my organs for my rotting dead self, rather than give them to people that treats me like shit when I’m alive. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/33 "2007-11-07T00:16:00Z")
Yes, and always have been. My father received an organ due to someone else’s generosity and was able to live another several years, which was meaningful to our family as well as our community (he worked with behaviorally disturbed kids). ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/34 "2007-11-07T00:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] My girlfriend is alive today because a young man who was killed by a car hitting him while he was riding his bicycle was thoughtful enough to sign up as an organ donor. Her liver was failing because of a genetic blood clotting disorder, not due to bad lifestyle choices. The doctors told her that she had less than a month left to live when the organ came in. She would have left behind a 15 year old son, both of her parents, a brother and loads of friends. My girlfriend has corresponded with the young man’s mother and so we know that hers was not the only life that he saved. His heart, lungs and kidneys also went out to recipients. [/QUOTE] That choked me right up. And yes, I am. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/35 "2007-11-07T00:49:04Z")
[QUOTE=Only Human] I’m not an organ donor, nor do I particularly want to be. If I’m going to give my organs to other people, I want something back. Obviously, I want something in advance 😛 [/QUOTE] Don’t know if they still do, but you used to be able to sell your body to medical school. They’d put a tattoo on you: please drop in nearest mailbox. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/36 "2007-11-07T01:12:35Z")
Yes, definitely an organ donor (noted on license and have informed my family of my wishes). Just seems to be the the last kind thing I can do. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/37 "2007-11-07T01:14:05Z")
Yep, sure am. [QUOTE=Queen Bruin] This statement fills me with so much :rolleyes: I really can’t articulate it. So I’m getting cremated with my kidneys out of sheer spite. [/QUOTE] Well, that will really show those heart and lung disease victims. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/38 "2007-11-07T01:18:54Z")
Organ donor, marrow donor and (blood) platelet donor. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/39 "2007-11-07T02:01:29Z")
I am. It amused me that I had to check my ID to be sure. You’d think I’d have no problem remembering an agreement to give my body parts away. ---
**Author:** ![Beaucarnea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@Beaucarnea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beaucarnea)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471/40 "2007-11-07T02:03:03Z")
Absolutely. I hope there is nothing left to cremate, and that maybe one day my family will get a happy letter from a living, thriving recipient. My dear friend Lula (yep, that’s her real name) is alive thanks to a kidney transplant. I can’t imagine life without my beautiful, generous, funny Native American princess. On each anniversary of her donor’s death, I write a thank you note to the donor’s family for saving my friend. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-organ-donor/425471.md?page=3)