# Movie "Seven Pounds" medical question - SPOILERS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-seven-pounds-medical-question-spoilers/482320 "2009-01-21T17:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-seven-pounds-medical-question-spoilers/482320/21 "2009-01-22T13:05:16Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Yeah, I saw a similar thing an episode of ER, I’m just saying I’ve never seen it in any of the, ya know, actual organ transplant cases I’ve worked on Don’t people who need kidneys, parts of livers, and bone marrow ask family and friends to get tested for a match all the time? Surely a successful match would direct that their organ go to a specific person. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-seven-pounds-medical-question-spoilers/482320/22 "2009-01-22T14:17:34Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > Don’t people who need kidneys, parts of livers, and bone marrow ask family and friends to get tested for a match all the time? Surely a successful match would direct that their organ go to a specific person. But that would be a donation by the living to the living while they are living. ---
**Author:** ![satoridt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@satoridt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/satoridt)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-seven-pounds-medical-question-spoilers/482320/23 "2009-01-22T18:42:38Z")
Who’s to say that the lady Will Smith was with wasn’t the next person on the list with her particular blood type? Wasn’t it extremely rare? Also he can probably dictate who gets his corneas because corneal transplants are not life saving and I don’t know if there is a list. (IANAE) Were those the only two that got the transplants after his death? Fyi- I thought it was a trite, predictable, mediocre movie. About 4 out of 10 ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-seven-pounds-medical-question-spoilers/482320/24 "2009-01-22T20:07:01Z")
> [@satoridt](#): > > Also he can probably dictate who gets his corneas because corneal transplants are not life saving and I don’t know if there is a list. (IANAE) There’s a list–my cite is a BOOK–OK, a work of fiction, but still–where someone killed people managing in manners which preserved the corneas for transplant, so that eventually, some mob boss or some such would get his corneal transplant. The book in question is _Blindsight_ by Robin Cook. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-seven-pounds-medical-question-spoilers/482320/25 "2009-01-22T21:02:20Z")
[QUOTE=satoridt] Who’s to say that the lady Will Smith was with wasn’t the next person on the list with her particular blood type? Wasn’t it extremely rare? [/QUOTE] Yes, they had the same very rare blood type, and her heart condition degraded from tolerable to “you’re gonna die, like, now”. She was very likely top of the list, or top of the list in the geographic area close enough that his heart would go to her. The only other post-death transplant was the corneas, which might have played a role in his choice not to shoot himself in the head or such. But here’s my thought. So what if he already donated part of a lung, part of his liver, and 1 kidney. Wouldn’t the rest of his lungs, rest of his liver, and other kidney be viable for transplant, too? So couldn’t he theoretically have saved/improved 3 more lives? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-seven-pounds-medical-question-spoilers/482320.md?page=1)