# Organ Donation



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

There's been a lot of talk this week in the UK about organ donation, largely surrounding our methods for 'harvesting' the organs of people once they're dead. What do you think of organ donation? People often consider it an immense gift, but also something that degrades the human body. I heard one British Muslim woman say today that she would rather watch her children die than allow them to receive another person's organs.

But all this talk about how we deal with bodies circling the drain distracts from a more pressing, positive message. We can't be apathetic about this issue up until we find ourselves in need, because then it's too late - we all need to be more pro-active, and consider our mortality far in advance. So take five minutes and consider an extremely important question. If one of your relatives was dying and they needed a transplant, would you want them to get an organ? If yes, don't think that it's just a gift you can take that will magically appear in your time of need; put yourself on the organ donor register and promote a culture that is willing to selflessly save lives.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I saw this on facebook.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

violadude said:


> I saw this on facebook.


Indeed! It must be everywhere because it's important and I want people to see it!  Are you on the register?!?!


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Indeed! It must be everywhere because it's important and I want people to see it!  Are you on the register?!?!


No not at the moment. I wouldn't mind signing up though. Except my kidney's are already bad so no one wants those.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

violadude said:


> No not at the moment. I wouldn't mind signing up though. Except my kidney's are already bad so no one wants those.


Yeah, I've got a number of organs that'd be useless too. Perhaps if we club together we can get a functioning organ system between us.


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

In Thinking Fast and Slow, the author said that variation in donor donation is almost entirely dependent on how the questionnaire is asked.

If the questionnaire asks you to "opt out" of organ donation, few people will opt out, therefore, very high donation rates.

If the questionnaire asks you to "opt in", very few opt in, very low donation rates.

If you're for donation, the biggest challenge is reforming the "default position" and make organ donation something you can voluntarily opt out of instead of something you opt in.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Zu...page&q=daniel kahneman organ donation&f=false


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

So far nobody in this thread has mentioned the Big Bugaboo: Excessive Eagerness to obtain the organ, i.e. "The guy has an infected hangnail, get his liver for the rich guy." Yep, the concept is out there.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Hilltroll72 said:


> So far nobody in this thread has mentioned the Big Bugaboo: Excessive Eagerness to obtain the organ, i.e. "The guy has an infected hangnail, get his liver for the rich guy." Yep, the concept is out there.


Yeah, a concept without precedence. Let's avoid evil doctor conspiracies.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't think wealth can get you to the top of the list if you need a transplant, but the wealthy can afford to fly anywhere in the world to receive the available organ. Poor folks don't have any money to leave home. Kind of like those unfortunates in New Orleans during Katrina.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I was wondering if perhaps an incentive for folks to get themselves on the register would be to give patients in need of an organ a boost on the waiting list if they are on the donors' register themselves. Do you think that sounds reasonable?


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Well done Polednice for publicising an important issue. :tiphat:

There is an argument for 'opting out' but for cultural, religious and, to be fair, squeamish reasons it's a very difficult thing to force people to do. But I'm in favour of it.

I give blood & was on the bone-marrow registry until I got too old.

I'm signed up as an organ donor & keep mentioning it to my next of kin so they don't forget. If you're signed up you don't need to carry a card but I still do. As far as I'm concerned, after I'm dead they can have any bits of me which might be useful to someone else.

My Dad donated his body to medical science so when he died his remains were taken to be used for research. We're not a very religious family but we did have a memorial service for him & someone from the medical school read a lesson which would have delighted him.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

My mother wants to donate her body to medical science and I respect that decision.

As for donating organs, I don't know if I have anything to offer people. I smoke, so my lungs aren't going to be useful to anyone, my heart for similar reasons, and the amount of crap I eat and drink isn't going to make my digestive/waste processing organs particularly useful to anyone.


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

Crudblud said:


> My mother wants to donate her body to medical science and I respect that decision.
> 
> As for donating organs, I don't know if I have anything to offer people. I smoke, so my lungs aren't going to be useful to anyone, my heart for similar reasons, and the amount of crap I eat and drink isn't going to make my digestive/waste processing organs particularly useful to anyone.


If I'm not mistaken you are fairly young (in your 20's?), so if even if you stop smoking and drinking only after 10-15 years, your lungs can clean themselves in 5 years. 
And how can you know that you don't have anything to offer? I'd sign up just because there's always a chance I might actually be helpful to someone, and if not - I hope my body will be useful to some medicine students.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

There is an 'organ donor' line on my driver's license; I've signed it. Most of my organs are probably 'well worn', but the eyes are 'better'n nuthin'.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

Our youngest daughter received a lung transplant which afforded her two more years of life. Unfortunately she contracted a fungal infection and passed away in the Autumn of 2001. But she did have those two more years with her family and friends and was able to return to her business. Naturally my wife are donors.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

GoneBaroque said:


> Our youngest daughter received a lung transplant which afforded her two more years of life. Unfortunately she contracted a fungal infection and passed away in the Autumn of 2001. But she did have those two more years with her family and friends and was able to return to her business. Naturally my wife are donors.


That's so incredibly sad, but at the same time heart-warming to know that someone out there afforded your daughter an extra two years of time on this earth with her family, and that you might one day do the same for someone else. At all times, life must be treated with reverence, with every second recognised as an improbable marvel, though I'm sure those two years were especially precious.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Dear GoneBaroque,
Please accept my sympathies on the loss of your daughter.

I'm a blood donor and have donated a total of 66 pints. I'm also a volunteer courier for the local tissue bank, and transport materials (Yes, they're human remains) to be further processed into skin and bone grafts on a scheduled basis.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

To not donate tissue, organs, and blood that you don't need is incredibly selfish and wasteful. It frustrates me to know that there are people in need who will never receive because someone wants to idolize their body after death.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Kopachris said:


> To not donate tissue, organs, and blood that you don't need is incredibly selfish and wasteful. It frustrates me to know that there are people in need who will never receive because someone wants to idolize their body after death.


I think there's also a frustrating 'ick' factor that some people have. For example, my parents aren't on the register despite me having asked them to, and when I ask why, there's no coherent answer, just an, "Hmm, err, well, I dunno, it seems a bit... err, weird." But I bet you all the money I have that if they were in a near fatal accident, they'd take someone else's organs in a snap. That's why I think it's incredibly important that people consider whether they'd take one themselves and, if so, that it's illogical to think that they just come out of nowhere.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Polednice said:


> I think there's also a frustrating 'ick' factor that some people have. For example, my parents aren't on the register despite me having asked them to, and when I ask why, there's no coherent answer, just an, "Hmm, err, well, I dunno, it seems a bit... err, weird." But I bet you all the money I have that if they were in a near fatal accident, they'd take someone else's organs in a snap. That's why I think it's incredibly important that people consider whether they'd take one themselves and, if so, that it's illogical to think that they just come out of nowhere.


And that's exactly why it frustrates me. It's _not_ weird. People do the same thing with automobiles--one dies, so it's sold or donated to a salvage yard for spare parts. What use is it buried in a casket?


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

As Hilltroll has mentioned, my driver's license indicates that I am an organ donor. It seems such a no-brainer, and I really don't understand how anyone could object on religious grounds...but, then there's a lot I don't understand. Worthy post, btw!


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Like the Crudmeister, after all the abuse I've put my body through I don't know how much good it would do to anyone. Still, and I'm sorry Poles, I wouldn't donate them even if they were in tip-top condition. You see I do believe in passing it on and saving lives and helping others; it is a big part of my life, to do these things. I can't shake the notion, however, that these ******* use any parts they want for anything they want and I'll be damned to hell before I allow any testing on me. Kinda the reason why I haven't been to the doctor in almost two decades. They've doubled the sheep and bog only knows what else by now but one is enough of me. I want to be burned in my backyard.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

kv466 said:


> And that's exactly why it frustrates me. It's not weird. People do the same thing with automobiles--one dies, so it's sold or donated to a salvage yard for spare parts. What use is it buried in a casket?


I totally agree with you here, though I hear many people complain that looking at the body so mechanistically reduces its value. I don't think this objection necessarily comes from religious people either.



kv466 said:


> Like the Crudmeister, after all the abuse I've put my body through I don't know how much good it would do to anyone. Still, and I'm sorry Poles, I wouldn't donate them even if they were in tip-top condition. You see I do believe in passing it on and saving lives and helping others; it is a big part of my life, to do these things. I can't shake the notion, however, that these ******* use any parts they want for anything they want and I'll be damned to hell before I allow any testing on me. Kinda the reason why I haven't been to the doctor in almost two decades. They've doubled the sheep and bog only knows what else by now but one is enough of me. I want to be burned in my backyard.


Really, kv? Where did you get the idea that your stuffs could be abused? There's a lot of nasty talk that goes on, so you've got to be especially careful to actually look for evidence. If you do have some evidence of doctors abusing organ donations, I'd be seriously interested to see it.


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

kv466 said:


> Like the Crudmeister, after all the abuse I've put my body through I don't know how much good it would do to anyone. Still, and I'm sorry Poles, I wouldn't donate them even if they were in tip-top condition. You see I do believe in passing it on and saving lives and helping others; it is a big part of my life, to do these things. I can't shake the notion, however, that these ******* use any parts they want for anything they want and I'll be damned to hell before I allow any testing on me. Kinda the reason why I haven't been to the doctor in almost two decades. They've doubled the sheep and bog only knows what else by now but one is enough of me. I want to be burned in my backyard.


But dude, you will be dead.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Chrythes said:


> But dude, you will be dead.


Yeah, the burn is apt to have that effect.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Chrythes said:


> But dude, you will be dead.


I know, I know...and, no, Poles...no evidence or anything like that, just a strong gut feeling and something I will never look upon any differently. Me no like doctors. Never have, never will.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

kv466 said:


> I know, I know...and, no, Poles...no evidence or anything like that, just a strong gut feeling and something I will never look upon any differently. Me no like doctors. Never have, never will.


Grrrrrr! I shall give you swine flu and then see what you have to say about doctors.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Grrrrrr! I shall give you swine flu and then see what you have to say about doctors.


Remember, I believe in natural medicine...and constantly medicate...I will live.


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

kv466 said:


> Remember, I believe in natural medicine...and constantly medicate...I will live.


Do you believe that it's possible to overcome any illness with natural medicine?


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Illnesses can only truly be cured through hardcore prayer to our almighty Father. If I run you over and -through the sheer crushing power of my Godmobile's 50" reinforced holy chrome rimmed wheels- send your brains flying in to old man Wilson's window; it's because you didn't pray hard enough.

REPENT REPENT

GET ON YOUR KNEES AND LUBRICATE YOUR ORIFICES

ABSOLVE YOURSELF OF SIN AND RESPONSIBILITY AT THE SAME TIME

JUST A FEW THRUSTS, NO FUSS NO MUSS

Everyone would be Catholic if I was the Pope.

Well, that was a fun tangent to ride for a little while. Please continue your serious discussion.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Chrythes said:


> Do you believe that it's possible to overcome any illness with natural medicine?


Let's not get into that discussion, but I can say that I'd be probably be dead without science-based medicine. :tiphat:


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Sorry, my first thought seeing the title of this thread was this:










I thought, well, well, really, are there so many organs in Britain being donated?


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