I’m all for organ donation. When I croak, they’re welcome to slice me open and take whatever they want, I’m not gonna be needing it. My mother and I were talking one day about organ donation; I wondered aloud if the doctors would bother harvesting eyes with pretty poor eyesight like mine. My mother replied that to someone who’s blind, surely my eyes would be better than nothing. But neither of us knew for certain. So what’s the straight dope on eye harvesting?
I would say yes, the organ harvesters will get whatever they can to sell and make a buck. Your eyes can be used by students studying the eye, trying procedures to correct vision or throw at other students.
Your selfless act is greatly will benefit many people whose lives depend on organ donation:
So you see, your generous gift will enable hundreds, ney, thousands to continue to live the livestyles to which they are accustomed. And they thank you.
The capability to transplant entire eyes does not yet exist. If they’re taking your eyes for transplant, they’re probably just after the corneas or lenses. A vision problem that isn’t due to the lense or cornea would not affect their use.
“Poor eyesight” is not a contraindication to eye donation. Most eye donations are of just the cornea, and occasionally, the sclera (the white part) rather than a full-eye transplant, which appears to be currently impossible.
What you consider poor eyesight can be a miracle to someone who’s been blind as their corneas are clouded over from glaucoma.
This eye bank has pretty broad criteria, as do most.
LASIK, or other corneal surgeries, if known about, or detected on examination of a potential donor cornea are usually a disqualifier, but even such an eye would be perfectly usable for education.