# Why are you against Organ Donation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 27, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432 "2005-04-27T20:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/21 "2005-04-27T22:40:50Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > You are incorrect, or at least if you are correct, none of the Catholics I know are familiar with this bit of doctrine. No, you were right the first time. The Catholic Church most definitely does not prohibit organ donation, nor do most other Christian sects. Those that do, if any, are exceptional. ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/22 "2005-04-27T22:53:20Z")
> [@Martha](#): > > One argument I’ve heard is that doctors might do less to save a seriously injured person if they think they can get their mitts on their bits. > > FTR I am in favour of organ donation myself. In June 1995 I got a closed head injury in an automobile accident. The EMT’s were required to perform CPR until a doctor declared and the ER doctor chose to put me on a respirator, that’s her job. After I was on a respirator, it was my wife that had ALL the say: continue or discontinue with life support based on the advice that she was given. The organ procurement people met her at the door of MUSC with my organ donor card in hand. They had no say in any of the decisions as to my care. Four days later, based on the advice that I could live on a respirator indefinately, my wife ordered the plug pulled and informed the doctor in charge that if I died they could have what they wanted. No one did the paperwork…I got better. ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/23 "2005-04-27T22:55:13Z")
There’s a big heart on the middle of my driver’s license now!!! ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/24 "2005-04-27T22:57:52Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Despite my efforts to correct her, my mom is convinced that if you have a donor card, doctors wouldn’t try as hard to save your life. That actually can’t possibly happen. The doctors, and staff caring for the pateint are not in anyway involved with organ retrieval. A team that is not based in any one hospital, comes in once brain death has occured and consent given. They then take over to retrieve whatever organs have been donated, and are viable. The organs are then transfered to the various transplant teams around the country. Tell your Mom, donor cards mean next to nothing. Consent has to come from next of kin, even with a donor card present. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/25 "2005-04-27T23:21:02Z")
That’s the case in Australia too - relatives must consent, so even if you specifically intended to donate an organ or organs, your next-of-kin can veto that decision. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/26 "2005-04-27T23:30:41Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > 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: No, draining the blood isn’t a problem. Each organ has a time limit from disconnect to reconnect. Hearts are 4 hours, if I remember correctly. Very few people who need organ transplants have organ failure because they smoked or drank. There are many causes for various organs to fail. Diabetes is a big one. Their kidneys fail, their hearts fail. There is still hope from pancreatic transplants that would cure diabetes it that person. Liver cancer and hepatitis cause liver failure. Liver transplants in infants because of congenital abnormalities that cause liver failure soon after birth, are fairly common. Skin is used for burn patients, bone for people wh have had bone cancer. The first heart transplant I took care of was an 11 year old who had a virus that caused his heart to fail. The list goes on. If you have any influence over loved ones who have misconceptions, please educate them. There is lots of [information](http://www.organdonor.gov/) in lots of [places](http://www.transweb.org/) to find out what you need to [know](http://www.donatelife.net/) about organ donation Here’s a [UK](http://www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/how_to_become_a_donor/how_to_become_a_donor.jsp) site. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/27 "2005-04-27T23:49:27Z")
I didn’t elect to have a “yes” put on my new license in regards to agreeing to be an organ donor. I’ve found the idea really creepy since learning that most organ donors aren’t dead-dead but brain dead. They think. You’ve got to act quickly, you know, before the organs deteroriate. And hopefully you won’t have a doctor like this one on [this x-files episode](http://allthingx.gubblebum.net/transcripts/9x13audreypauley.txt). Maybe I’ll be less creeped out by the possibility when I’m older. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/28 "2005-04-28T00:02:24Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I’ve found the idea really creepy since learning that most organ donors aren’t dead-dead but brain dead. They think. . No dude you don’t understand what brain death is at all in thios context. In fact, better to be sure you are brain dead, because you absolutely have no thought processes (lost all neurological function) … you could conceivably have those functions if your heart stopped and you stopped breathing for up to 6 minutes. That is why they wait for “brain death” > **[How Brain Death Works](https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/brain-death1.htm)** > > Brain death means no recovery. Find out about the injured brain, comas vs. brain death, the checklist for confirming brain death and organ donation. My friend’s Dad was afraid that he couldn’t have a “proper” open casket and refused OD. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/29 "2005-04-28T00:06:37Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I didn’t elect to have a “yes” put on my new license in regards to agreeing to be an organ donor. I’ve found the idea really creepy since learning that most organ donors aren’t dead-dead but brain dead. They think. You’ve got to act quickly, you know, before the organs deteroriate. And hopefully you won’t have a doctor like this one on [this x-files episode](http://allthingx.gubblebum.net/transcripts/9x13audreypauley.txt). Maybe I’ll be less creeped out by the possibility when I’m older. Sweety, brain dead is as dead as you can get. There’s no “you” there anymore. The fact that you remain warm, and pink is irrelavant. You’re probably right about feeling different when you’re older. Its not normal to think about your own death when you’re young. ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/30 "2005-04-28T02:26:14Z")
I was startled to learn that an ex-boyfriend of mine was vehemently opposed to organ donation. He told me that he might need that stuff in his afterlife. He was raised in a rather fundamentalist religion, I discovered, and that was his reason for saying that. He was also a complete idiot, and a psychopathic loon. (Not necessarily because of the fundamentalist upbringing… He was just a raving psycho, regardless of religion.) I was absolutely stunned to learn that my SO does not want to be an organ donor. He doesn’t care to discuss it, beyond something along the lines of “Mine, and I’m keepin’ ‘em.” I pressed for more in-depth reasons, but I’ve not gotten any yet. He is in no way an idiot, nor a loon, nor a religious fanatic (or religious at all, except for being a lapsed Catholic). I suspect he’s just squicked out by the whole idea. Myself, I’m all for it if they can salvage anything from my trainwreck of a body. I can’t imagine why my corpse will need corneas, or kidneys, or a heart, or anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/31 "2005-04-28T03:34:11Z")
I was listed as an organ donor on my drivers liscense and then I changed my mind. I don’t mind donating my organs for a life saving operation (and I’ll let my wife be the judge of which organs to harvest when). But I’ll be damned if my skin (an organ) is used to prop up Joan rivers face. I’m not sure there’s much control over that if you’re not specific. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/32 "2005-04-28T03:34:50Z")
I have always thought that “Shit I’m done with them, maybe somebody else can use them.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/33 "2005-04-28T04:21:51Z")
[Lenny]“Plus, they’ll put you on one of those organ donor sucker lists. Everyone who wants an eyeball or a spine or a vestigial tail will be after ya!” [/Lenny] ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/34 "2005-04-28T04:32:25Z")
Because my body is just as much a part of me as my mind and soul are, and it squicks me out infinitely to imagine a part of me existing as part of someone else’s body. I want my body to turn to dust after I’m gone, and that includes all of it. I also would not accept a donated organ for myself, nor do I wish to be autopsied or embalmed. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/35 "2005-04-28T04:34:07Z")
I should also mention that I am a regular blood donor; I see blood as not an organ (i.e. “part of me”), but just a bodily fluid like saliva or urine, albeit a highly useful and life-saving bodily fluid. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/36 "2005-04-28T06:55:42Z")
Isn’t organ donation much less common in Italy, for some (cultural? religious?) reasons? (Y’know, even though the Vatican says it’s OK?) And, for the record, my guts and tissues are all up for grabs when I kick off. Just as long as there’s enough corpse left to do something funny with. (Like dressed in a full Conquistador outfit and slyly dumped in Antarctica, or something.) ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/37 "2005-04-28T07:18:40Z")
> [@Rooves](#): > > I was listed as an organ donor on my drivers liscense and then I changed my mind. I don’t mind donating my organs for a life saving operation (and I’ll let my wife be the judge of which organs to harvest when). But I’ll be damned if my skin (an organ) is used to prop up Joan rivers face. I’m not sure there’s much control over that if you’re not specific. Skin for cosmetic surgery is never donor, it has to come from the person getting the surgery. It would require a life time of anti-rejection drugs. Skin is only used temporarily, on burn victims to stablize them until the can be grafted permanently. You can specify which organs you want to keep. ---
**Author:** ![buncombe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@buncombe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buncombe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/38 "2005-04-28T07:25:00Z")
I once interned with the medical examiner’s office, and as a treat I got to work with the organ donar folks. They let me take an eyeball out. Neato. Then they removed the sheet covering the legs of the donor, and I saw that they had removed bone from the left leg-- and they had stitched the poor guy up with these awful, jagged stitches, and since there was no bone in the leg it was sorta… coiled looking. Squicked me out, and I vowed nobody would mess with my corpse after I was dead. Ditto with autopsies-- no way no how. Since then I’ve realized the benefits are so potentially wonderful that my squeamishness is unreasonable. I won’t know what’s going on when I’m dead, will I? So I am an organ donor now. Though the thought of my loved ones being organ donors, and knowing how their bodies will look after organ removal-- well, I’d rather the people I love NOT be organ donors, kind of like how I hope I’ll die first among the people I know. Makes sense to me, emotionally, though I know that organ donation is a wonderful thing. ---
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/39 "2005-04-28T15:54:55Z")
I’m Catholic and I don’t have any religious reasons for not being an organ donor, so I have a pretty little red heart on my drivers liscense. Most of my girlfriend’s immediate family, on the other hand, believes that your body stores memories not just in your brain but in other organs as well, so if you donate your organs, then a definate part of you is kept from naturally decomposing and, potentially, this could keep you from completely moving on to another plane of existance. I vaguely remember a talkshow (I know, super accurate source of information from completely sane people, right?) where someone who never liked pizza and had a heart transplant suddenly started craving pizza. The person was on the show to meet the parents of the guy that the heart came from. Shocker of shockers, the dead guy loved pizza! I don’t know how many other stories there might be like this, but, as of right now, I don’t think that I’m going to miss my liver/heart/lungs/whatever once I’m dead…hope I’m not wrong! -Mosquito ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432/40 "2005-04-28T16:37:16Z")
Like MissMossie’s story, I’m hoping that all who get my organs will start loving The Monkees and beer. That’d be AWESOME! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-you-against-organ-donation/301432.md?page=3)