I will always be for Organ Donation because if I have the right to save someone elses life whether they deserve it or not.. I will. Because the world will never be a better place until we help each other more.
I just made a new friend and he has cystic fibrosis and will need a lung transplant in a few years, so I'm all for organ donation. Unless you have religious or health reasons, there isn't any reason to keep your organs. You are dead.
Another thing, off topic, but instead of graveyards I think we should have 'grave forests', where creamated bodies are mixed into the soil of a growing tree that is planted on site with a plaque in the ground in rememberence of the person. It would be a great way to reforest the Earth, and allow the dead to have a sort of 'second life'.
There are a lot of things regarding how we treat/manage the dead that I think need to be changed.
On a moral level I wholeheartedly support organ donation. It would be comforting to know that my last good deed on the earth would result in saving somebody's life or making it more manageable on a day-to-day basis. Giving somebody the opportunity to live a better quality of life through organ donation is probably one of most selfless and noble acts one individual can do for another. More often than not it determines the difference between life and death. There are instances where the only viable cure is a new organ, considering that the organ waiting list is multitudes longer than the organs available list. Also, I think it's amazing how you hear those stories about organ donation where it alters the recipients personality similar to that of the donors - a part of you is still living much greater than on a physical level - ((you need an account to see links))
However, I find that there's something a little bit unsettling about a doctor cutting me open, taking out an organ, and sewing me up while my body is hooked up to life-support machine. The question wouldn't be 'am I dead' rather, it would be 'are you dead enough?' My grandfather is in the very late stages of Alzheimer's disease, and according to most sources he is certainly 'dead enough' for organ donation. (i.e "Alzheimer's disease should NOT be a definition of death, but it might be a sufficient condition to bring a human life to an end — especially if organ donation might be wise." (you need an account to see links)) Let's suppose I'm on the organ donor list... if I'm dying after getting into a really bad car accident - of course! If I'm in a coma and on life support - that's a whole other question all together, i.e euthanasia wholly on the grounds of organ donation.
I'm for it contingent on it being my sole decision. If it's a parent deciding that their dying child's organ should be used to help another individual that's fine seeing as the child is underage, however if I'm an adult who hasn't fully decided whether or not I want to be on the organ donor's list, it shouldn't be an available option for my family, doctors or government to decide unless I had explicitly stated that I wanted to do so. As noble as the act is, the end does not justify the mean unless the donating party willingly consents to it.
Bittersweet, that is a very well thought out and interesting viewpoint to this discussion, especially because it effects you personally. It makes understanding the other side of the debate much easier and in a sense adds more complexity into a situation where we still have yet to decide on 'when' death is for a person who's body is still functioning, and the morality of harvesting a person when the family feels it is not their time. A topic such as this will never be a have your cake and eat it, too sort of a deal. I liked reading your views on this.
i myself am an organ donor and im all for it, if i can do even a little good after my death then so be it. there are so many people without next of kin who leave no instructions for after their deaths that opting out rather than in would be useful in those circumstances if organs were viable.
Last edited by vampyd1977; 01-25-2014 at 06:28 PM.
I'm with bittersweet on this - medical science has advanced to such a point that we can keep people alive in the face of insane damage/degeneration to the body. It's already scary enough for a lot of people to decide when to "pull the plug" on a loved one who is hovering near death or locked into a vegetative state.
At some point, decisions have to be made about how much time and effort to expend to keep people alive. I'm currently working as an EMT, and while we don't go through wallets to find donor cards in order to determine who we're going to resuscitate, we do occasionally have to make decisions about who receives priority care, the amount of time spent working on a particular patient, etc. Emergency room staff have to make even more of these decisions; they can be difficult decisions, but somebody has to make the call, and some sort of practical criteria must be used. If an ER sees two patients in, a 50-year-old and an 80-year-old, they're going to spend far longer on resuscitation efforts for the 50-year-old. It's not a nice thing to think about, especially if you're the family of the 80-year-old, but it's a practical decision based on chances of survival, quality of life, all that sort of thing. So, what happens to that scenario if organ donation is an opt-out process? There's definitely a better chance that your 50-year-old in this scenario is an organ donor; suddenly, you have a practical reason for stopping resuscitation efforts earlier. After all, this individual obviously has some problems that could shorten his/her lifespan (pre-existing condition, complications related to an accident), while you might have an otherwise very healthy 20-year-old down the hall whose only problem is a malfunctioning kidney. Now, the 20-year-old is a better candidate than the 50-year-old. Why shouldn't the 20-year-old get new organs?
Organ donation is fantastic, but it's a question of who is holding the reins in the decision-making process. Who is impartial enough to make the correct judgments, and does an impartial judge really have the right to say, ok, that person's life is done, because we don't like the quality of that life?
One, your body decays into dirt and turns into nutrients for other plants, animals, microorganisms to feed on.
Two, your body slowly decays into dirt and turns into nutrients for other plants, animals, microorganisms to feed on--if you're in a grave.
Three, your body is ionized into plasma and turns into galactic dust--if you choose to cremate your body.
Four, you gave your body to be used by someone else, and they also decay, age, and die--leading to the same process... organic decomposition.
But in the very long term.. you'll be galactic dust.
i think organ donation is the best gift you could give someone. Where you`re going that doesn`t work for you but for someone may be the difference between life and dead.