Re-reading my own words, it does sound like I am unequivocally condemning Dorland. I should have made it clearer that I was merely speculating - there might have been some harm caused by Dorland’s behavior toward the recipient. Maybe there wasn’t; maybe it was very rewarding for the recipient to have a chance to thank Dorland personally.
I do think enough factual information has been presented to indicate that Dorland is a very flawed character. This in no way excuses Larson’s behavior, and the more I read about the Chunky Monkeys, the more nasty a clique they seem to be.
All right, this is the last one for now – I found this interesting study on altruistic donation. It’s interesting to me that things that seem like they could be “off” about Dorland’s letter to me, a healthy person who does not need any organs donated, are Dorland actually addressing common anxieties and issues that recipients seem to actually have, such as the recip deserving it. That is, Dorland has more empathy than I do, because it would never occur to me that an organ recipient might need to hear exactly those things.
(I admit that I feel kinda strongly about this topic because I have a good friend who donated a kidney to a mutual friend of ours. My friend never made a big deal about it at all – in fact she never really talked about it and didn’t want other people to talk about it, because she really didn’t want to come across as doing it for the accolades – but… it’s a big deal!)
That is totally fair. And although I am clearly biased more towards Dorland than you are, probably because of my circumstances, I think we can agree on what you said here
Yup. And even if Dorlan donated mainly for kudos, fine. She still donated a kidney, put herself at risk and saved someone’s life, for a complete stranger. It’s the sort of thing many people think they would do any few would actually go through with. Kidney donors don’t have to be perfect people, they just have to have suitable kidneys and health good enough to recover from it.
The absolute worst interpretation still puts her in a far better light than the person, an actual close friend, who used her experience to mock her.
