My sister-in-law is adamantly against donating her organs. She has never really explained why and I am very curious as to what would make someone against such a thing.
If you are, or know someone who is, please give me the explanation. Im not looking to judge, or debate the issue. I am just genuinely curious as to what exactly about the idea makes someone against it. If its religion please explain what religion and where in that religions doctrine specifically denies organ donation.
Again, I don’t want any judging or debating. Everyone has the right to their own decision on such a thing so lets not get into pit territory
I don’t know why, but the idea of donating my organs has always kinda creeped me out, especially the idea of someone having my heart. I don’t know why it bothers me but it does.
Oddly enough, I have no problems donating blood. So this is something that I know I should make an attempt to get over.
My wife refuses to even entertain the idea of donating organs. She also doesn’t want an autopsy when she dies, so at least she is consistant. I told her I would do what I could, but she had better put it in writing as recent events have taught us. Plus, I don’t want her to die and have people be suspicious of me when I go around saying “Whatever you do, don’t cut her open.” I on the other hand, have been a registered organ donor since a good friend in high school needed two cornea transplants so that he didn’t lose his vision. If I’m dead or on permanant life support, and my organs (any or all of them) can save other peoples lives, then by all means.
I went through a phase in my early 20s when I would donate anything but my heart and my eyes. At the time, I felt that who I am was intimately connected to these organs. I believed that the heart was the seat of soul and the eyes were the window. Donating those particular organs seemed like giving away more than I could bear.
Now, I will donate all of my organs. At some point, I really made the connection that the heart is just a highly specialized muscle. Plus, I didn’t like thinking that someone might die because of my weird hang ups. The eyes were more difficult, because people don’t die without cornea transplants. Ultimately though, the benefits of donation outweigh the ability to bury an intact body.
I figure that if God decides to drag my rotten body out of the grave, and restore it to “normal” apperances, he can put a new heart/lung/kidney/liver/whatever back in too.
I don’t buy the “they won’t try” argument one bit. If it was me providing the care, I’d probably go extra far for those that are giving enough to prepare the documents in advance. IANAD, nor any other health care professional.
You are incorrect, or at least if you are correct, none of the Catholics I know are familiar with this bit of doctrine. My mother is a devout Catholic and is also very pro-organ donation. Ditto many of my other Catholic relatives.
Dunno about Catholics, but Baptists don’t have any restrictions about organ donation I’m aware of. Both my wife and I are organ donors.
Cecil covered this topic in a couple of columns years ago. I think it creeps some people out that organ donation activities take place before the donor is pronounced dead, and that probably leads to the belief that the doctor(s) won’t work as hard to save a donor’s life.
Jews/Christians/Muslims & devotees of Buddha, as a group, seem to encourage it, or at worst leave it up to the individual. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a bit squeamish about blood, but organ & tissue (apart from blood) is groovy. Shinto religion thinks it’s downright horrible and will send you to The Hell of Foul Excrements if you dig into a dead body.
I heard once about a guy that signed up for a liver donor card, and not only did he not receive adequate treatment to save his life but a pair of technicians actually tracked him down, killed him in his home and TOOK HIS LIVER! :eek:
…And when he woke up, he found himself lying in a bathtub packed with icy Neiman-Marcus cookies, and there was a note on the mirror which blamed the satanists at Procter & Gamble.
My stepfather’s parents are dead-set, 100% utterly AGAINST it, not only for themselves but for everyone else too. They told my stepfather they if they outlive him they’ll fight tooth & nail to prevent his organs being harvested. Horrified, my stepfather quickly made sure that his will included his wishes to donate his organs, then promptly reminded me & my brothers where his & mom’s wills are.
The reason his parents are so against it is that their sect of Baptist-ism believes that God needs an intact body to raise from the dead for the Resurrection. Thus cremation is out as well.
Theirs is the only Christian sect that I’m aware of that belives this. I myself am a fundamentalist (though I hate that word) evangelical Protestant, and I’m all for organ donation.
There’s an organization out there called Organ Keepers that discourages people from donating their organs. Their reasons are financial, not philosphical or religious. Basically they believe that if no one donates their organs, then their sale will be allowed.
The link says the organs have to be completely drained of blood before transplantation. Wouldn’t that make the organs decompose faster because of necrosis? And isn’t it impossible to drain the heart and liver, the first because it is filled with so much blood that taking it out would cause it to collapse, the second because it is porous and there’s a lot of places blood could hide? Any doctors know about this?
There was someone in a Pit thread once who said they wouldn’t donate because it would be rewarding people such as smokers and alcoholics for their behavior. :rolleyes: