Organ donations

Yelina · Organ donations

Daily, some people die in different parts of the world just because of the lack of organ donations.

I don't know how this issue is handled in your country, but in France, people are not informed well enough. We do not have advertising campaigns or when we have some, it's just 2 days a year. It's far from being sufficient to call up the population. I'm convinced that the government should more imply itself to gather people when they are still alive. Indeed, the decision of giving his/her organs must be thought when people are in good fit because when they're dead, the families seldom agree to give organs. Despite the fact that I clearly understand their situation, I find it a pity to deprive some people of life whereas the organs of the dead person are going to rot into the ground or disappear in ashes.
As far as I'm concerned, I already told my family that I want to donate my organs. I like helping people, so, if I can still do it at the time of my death, then, I'd leave happy.

This problem also occurs with blood donations. But fortunately, for about one year, more people agree to give their blood (at least in France). The slight increase is a good thing, but it's still not enough.

What do you think about organ/blood donations? Are you in favor of or against?

Pauline

Yes I agree that it's wonderful to give your organs to help other people. I've told as well that I want to do this.

i wanted to give blood in the hospital but they didn't take some because if you take medications it will be in your blood, and this will be on the list of reasons why they don't take your blood for transfusion or other things. I told them then I wouldn't take the medicatiosn during for example one week, so I can give blood, but they replied that it's not allowed that they take the blood from someone who does this.

I suppse that the organs it's not a problem; the most important is that your organs are healthy. I think that mine are very well, so they can take them after I will die. When you're dead you don't use your human body; your soul get separated so for sure you can give your liver, kidney, eyes, heart etc... to another person without the risk that the person would steal somethings from you, or you would get those feelings/thoughts of those people. It's a quite difficult thing to understand, because for example the priest told me that after someone you love dies, they live forever in your heart - so, if your heart would be transplanted to another person would you lose the eternity of the person, would this transfer to the destinary of the heart? I'm not sure what to think about this. I hope that all such personal things would go to the soul when you die, so the organs would be not more connected with you, but like objects then to develop the feelings, thoughts etc..of the person who will receive them.

i like helping people as well, so although somethings (like what I've written, but other things as well) aren't to undertsnad, I would like to donate my organs.

Porthos

I would donate my organs, but I always worry that some rich and powerful person might have me "whacked" in order to get an organ he/she desperately needs.

Deborah

I have the little pink dot on my driver's license that indicates that when I die, my body is to be used for whatever good can be got from it, whether it's recyling organs or slicing it up for teaching purposes. BTW, is that little pink dot just a California thing, or do all the states use it?

Yelina

Yelina

Walker

I don't think we're very well informed about organ donation here either. I have no idea how many people here are willing to donate their bodies/organs when they die. And I'm not really sure what I'd want myself.

I read today that there are several hospitals in Sweden where doctors keep from pulling the plug on almost brain-dead patients whom they know won't survive, until they are brain-dead, so that they can pick whatever organs they need from those patients once they're completely dead. So, they keep them "alive" so that they can use them as a toolbox later on. It's called elective ventilation. Several transplantation units work actively to make nursing staff apply elective ventilation without contacting their manager first, even though it's illegal. However, the authorities are now looking into it.

This is pretty amazing:

It's not a rubber dummy but a man holding his own skin. Last week at work I was talking to a co-worker and I said a couple of lines from Flesh For Frankenstein.

-When I was studying under professor Blümberg and Frenks, we had to wipe ze floors for two years before I could stick my nose into ze laboratory!

-But, Baron, you know I believe in your work! Ve've vorked so hard togezer. Ve did everything in ze laboratory and I'm so graseful to you that I could do that.

-I know, I know, Otto. You've been a very good assistant. And you brought in some good parts. That manos was perfect.

-Thank you, Baron.

-But what we weally need now is a perfect... nasum!

We carried on joking for a bit and he said that it's a shame there aren't any of those people in the real world, but only in the movies, but added that maybe they're just good at hiding. Then, the other day as I was getting rid of a couple of slow minutes at work I came across an article in Aftonbladet (daily paper) that made my sleepy eyes widen a little. The article was about Gunther von Hagens and he seemed to meet all the criteria:

1, he's an anatomist.
2, he's German.
3, he's excentric.

Check it out for yourselves! -> Body Worlds. His biography on Wikipedia begins with the following words:

Lazar

I saw Body Worlds when it was at the Boston Science Museum a few months ago. They had some really fascinating stuff there.

Walker

Joanne

Lazar

Uriel

I think most or all US states have the organ donation dot on their drivers licenses. It's on my NM one. Sadly, car wreck victims usually make the best donators -- they're generally in good health, with no major disease processes destroying their tissues (as opposed to sick people who are already in the hospital), and many of their organs will escape major trauma from the wreck. Plus, many accidents happen because people in the prime of their lives are simply driving recklessly, so their organs will last a long time in a new body!

My mother's cousin died of an aneurysm and was parted out to at least four different people -- it made the newspaper because there wasn't a lot of organ donation in the south at the time (about 20 years ago). I think it's a lot more common now.

Just try not to die of rabies and then donate your organs, like that one guy ... three people died of rabies after receiving his parts! (It's just not a disease that gets screened for regularly, and it can only be diagnosed from brain tissue! No one knew that that was what he had died from until it was too late....)

And Porthos, try not to let those silly urban legends get to you -- you have to be carefully matched to any potential recipient for your organs to do them any good. So it ain't some rich stranger you need to watch out for -- it's more likely to be a close relative!

Yelina

Uriel

One of my friends who had his leg mangled in a workplace accident with a forklift is having a cadaver heel implanted in his foot (his own heel necrosed and could not be saved, and he requires an expensive brace to walk properly). I would have to think long and hard before going that route and having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of my life -- he's only in his late twenties, I believe. But at one point he was considering having it amputated altogether due to the chronic pain, so I think any decision he makes is going to be a drastic one.

Elaine