Are You an Organ Donor?

I totally understand people not wanting to donate their organs. I don't judge it as selfish at all. It's a personal choice and no one should feel bad about which they choose to do.

Not to many years ago, we didn't even have the option because medical science wasn't advanced enough to transplant, but today, we have amazing opportunities to help others have a better quality of life.

So, every little bit helps. And my desire with this thread is to say that whether you want to donate or not, let your family know. And if you think you might want to donate, educate yourself and then let them know.

Originally posted by thelibra
I'll admit, it's a tad selfish,

No. Not at all. It's a valid concern. The human body should be treated with respect. Your concern (btw - which I share) is entirely valid.

Originally posted by thelibra
...to keep at least a fraction of my remains, usable or not, so that I can give my family a bit of closure....

That's an excellent point there. A family does need a sense of closure and if having remains to dispose of will give them that, then it certainly should be taken into consideration.

It is my opinion that funerals are for the living, not the deceased. If my family can have a closure ritual without any physical part of me remaining, great - science can use my entire carton any way it wishes. However, if my physical presence is required in a ritual, then it should be there - at least in part.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic


What are your thoughts on organ donation?
Are you signed up to do so?

organ donation is all well and good for those so inclined

i refuse to participate as is my perogative

if i'd been a donor, as noted on one's drivers license,
i'd have been harvested & parceled out back in 1972 when a car
rammed me into a bridge abbutment & was later run-over by a rubbernecker
who was unaware that a person was thrown from the smashed up Opel stationwagon.

If i'd been a donor, on my AZ license, when i had a brain hemorrhage
in 1997, i'd have been harvested & parcelled out no doubt.

i anticipate that in 2021, (the next 24.5 year interval) I will still
be a non-donor, but by that time my eyes, liver and other parts
will not be serviceable to others anyhow...


but i would consider releasing 'bone marrow' if it could be helpful,
however the law says its all or nothing... & that needs to be reviewed !
as technology has made it possible to set up speciality donations
rather than the present blanket model covering all body organs & parts

Absolutely and have been so for several years now. I also have a living will and have arranged to donate my body to science.

On a related note to this, does anyone here donate blood, and would you consider being a blood donor different from being an organ donor?

I try to give whenever I can if I've got some to spare. I figure it's only a matter of time before I'll need a transfusion someday, and what goes around comes around.

Blood donor? Sure. I would. But right now I can't. In the past I have.
Oh .. and I do consider it different than organ donation. Totally.

I am unable to donate blood but would do so if I could.

To those of you who donate, thanks - I can't say it enough. Thank you.

I had a life saving blood transfusion in 1996.

I cannot donate blood either. I take medication that could kill the right (or wrong) person. At the very least, they would become violently ill. But yeah, I would if I could.

I'm not even sure some of my organs would be usable by someone else, but my eyes and skin (and some organs) probably would be, so I'll be donating them.

If it makes you feel good to donate your organs, then do it. However you should read this article if you want to go into it with open eyes and it may raise your concern about who you are giving the power to influence the decision of whether you are dead or not.

Organ harvesting from patients before brain-death has been declared is a rapidly increasing trend in U. S. hospitals, the Washington Post reported March 18, alarming doctors and ethicists about the dubious ethics behind the practice.

Instead of waiting until brain function ceases and the patient is declared "brain-dead" by medical officials (itself a questionable practice since there is no universally-accepted definition of brain-death) surgeons have begun following an approach known as "donation after cardiac death." Organs are harvested once the heart has stopped beating and several minutes have passed without the heart spontaneously re-starting.
LifeSite.net

This information is somewhat disturbing and anyone considering organ donation should browse through the sites here.

I would point out that very little in the medical world is pretty or pleasant and nothing that happens to a body after death is declared, whether the individual is an organ donor or not, is very delicate.

The protocols may be different, but whether the surgeons or the morticians have their way with you after the declaration of death, you're good and dead when they finish with you, whether you were that way to begin with or not.

If the protocols for the declaration of death are being scaled back to accommodate recipients without due consideration for the donor, then some serious reconsideration of priorities should be undertaken, no pun intended.

Those who are concerned about this should contact their legislators, because what is legal or not in terms of declaring death, would begin at the legislative level.

The information available suggests that when organ recipients are waiting, concern for the donor's well-being takes a backseat.

However, I have no intention of rescinding my Living Bank commitment.


[edit on 2007/3/26 by GradyPhilpott]

I'm a donor and have been for years; I've also donated blood. It seems a small thing to do. On a personnal note a friend of mine has a wonderful daughter who has CF; her only chance to live past 16 is a lung transplant which would then cure her. Her parents are praying for a miracle for her but at the same time feeling almost guilty because for her to live another must die. I would ask that you all pray for her.

Good info on marrow transplant I tested many years ago in Hawaii when we were trying find a match for a 6 year old. The attempt was unsuccessful. Do I need to retest or would the list still be valid?

I don't really mind people taking good organs and using them for others.

I just want them working really hard on saving me and not saving my organs so they can do some really cool surgery later with someone else.

I have a fear of people stealing my organs.

NOT to rain on anyone's parade - but this came up and I thought ya'll might be interested. The shortage of organ donors is causing some doctors to declare their patients 'dead' before they actually are.

www.spiritdaily.com...

I am not changing my organ donor status because of this. I still think almost all doctors are just fine.

Yes, I know I said 'almost all'. I am willing to take that chance.

I became an organ donor a few weeks ago when I got my provisional driving license. I figured, if I die, what am I going to use 'em for?

Better someone benefit from them than have them being wasted.

If someone wants them.....well they can have them. My eyes (corneas), liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, kidneys.....heck....as long as I'm dead, they can have my whole body!

In fact, I've made specific notations on my will that my body should be donated to the University of Western Ontario School of Medicine. Sure, they can use whatever body parts that might be useful but, in addition to that, I would hope that medical school students will have a decent cadaver (mine) on which to practice.

As it stands now, medical school students -- possibly future surgeons -- really have very little time actually dissecting and working on human bodies! Even then, the cadavers that they do have available for "practice" are often the bodies of the indigent (which raises issues in itself). These particular cadavers are typically very similar due to alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse. Additional factors such as malnutrition make these bodies, if not suitable, then, certainly, mundane in their similarity. I figure that my donating my body, these young men and women will have something "new" and less typical to work on.

Many of my friends think that my intentions are rather macabre but I really do not see that my body will do me -- or anyone else -- a bit of good buried in a box six feet under. Why not let my body do some good when I no longer have any need of it?

I've been an organ donor since I became a liscenced driver. Organ donations have saved so many lives in the past and will in the future.

There are some disturbing trends in the harvesting of donor tissue worldwide, including here in the United States, do to the incredible amounts of money to be made. Free enterprise in wonderful, ain't it?

You'll obviously never know who you'll help...then again, good karma like that has to be rewarded somehow.