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I recently renewed my drivers license in California,
and you are an organ donor BY DEFAULT in CA.
It's not simply 'check the box' or not, now you have to take separate action and go to ANOTHER website to opt-out, if you choose to do so. The website flys by in small print during the registration procedure.
However, at a cocktail party conversation with some medical professional, I remember he told me the ghouls will take your corneas without asking.
That's ridiculous. I live in a "Death with Dignity" state. Absolutely no one is "checking off a list" and declaring anyone to be a "vegetable". Please cite ANY of those who have joined in "self advocacy" against this. And the "group" they and YOU are part of. It doesn't exist and you know it. It is purely a personal decision and CANNOT be made by anyone but the person themselves. Not spouse, not parent, not sibling - no one! The person has to be of sound mind and able to speak for themselves. Where on earth did you get this nonsense?
Read the statistics. You are doing nothing but spreading the ridiculous "slippery slope" mentality. Get off you high horse and do the research.
I wouldn't complain. People need to be pragmatic. If my mother or my one of my brothers needed a transplant and got one, it's great news. But I'm aware there's a great risk it would not happen.
The same happens to millions of people who get transplants and end up dying regardless. It's a risk.
Sure it’s a risk, but the alternative might be death... what do you have to lose if you might die without it? This makes no sense. A chance is better than no chance.
In the United States alone, 21 people die everyday waiting for an organ transplant. Though about 45 percent of American adults are registered organ donors, it varies widely by state.
That could be me one day & it sucks. If it worked the way it was supposed to & like it was meant to; I would be back 'in'.
However, at a cocktail party conversation with some medical professional, I remember he told me the ghouls will take your corneas without asking.
I'm sure they remove a lot of other organs without permission. My friend accompanied his mother's body all the way he could to make sure no one from the transplant team even came close.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 8 days ago)
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Reputation: 50660
Quote:
Originally Posted by coschristi
Yes. On my DL. Actually went back to the DMV & paid for a renewal to do so. If donors are needed so badly they should get their act straight.
This seems a little akin to those crazy "get off my lawn" guys who call the local paper and cancel their newspaper subscriptions after an article they don't agree with gets published.
Donors are needed so badly, because very lovely and deserving people need organs others no longer need.
To make your decision based on the personalities of staff, or whatever perceived shortcoming made you decide not to save a life, is petty.
It's surprising - shocking, actually - that you think you might be on the organ transplant list some day and yet you made a very special effort to make sure your own organs aren't donated.
If I ran the system, people like that wouldn't be in line to receive an organ. You get what you give.
I'm sure they remove a lot of other organs without permission. My friend accompanied his mother's body all the way he could to make sure no one from the transplant team even came close.
So to put it bluntly, your friend guaranteed that other people would be grieving just as much as him when their own loved ones awaiting donation passed away. Misery loves company, I suppose. You'd think the experience of losing his mother would make him more empathetic to those facing death, not less.
Personally I think withholding an organ (from a deceased donor) from someone who needs a life-saving donation is like withholding water (when you have plenty) from someone dying of dehydration. You're basically passively killing them for no logical reason.
We lost a 25 yo son to a brain stem injury almost 3 years ago. We asked the hospital staff to put us in touch with the organ donation team, they were kind and understanding while waiting for us to make a decision to take him off life support.
After the time came they stayed with us for comfort till we felt we were ready to go home.
They harvested many organs and as donors and recipients remain confidential we may never know who he helped. They do provide a service where they will forward letters from recipients to the donor family (no identifying of who either party is)
we did get a letter about 6 months after his death from a recipient thanking us and telling us that the new kidney her husband received was thriving and he hopes to return to a normal life (he was 53 yo)
Fast forward a couple of years, I lost a kidney to cancer and the remaining one is struggling to keep my system going. If it comes to the time I need a kidney, I hope a family can look forward and make the same donor decision we did.
This story has 2 endings, Sad and Happy. We would encourage any family faced with the tough decision to donate their loved ones organs to remember, someone may live because your family could look past the sadness to a better life for someone else.
I think organ harvesting is degrading, particularly for the receiver. The whole idea I find revolting, to be so desperate for a few years of life that we are willing to butcher dead people for their organs. None of us wants to die but the reality of our biology is that new life is possible only because the old has passed on. It seems selfish to think that some of us are better than this biological necessity. It makes me really uncomfortable that we have an ethos that is built up around the idea that organ harvesting is normative.
And then there is the whole ethical thing - in many places it is the privileged and the wealthy who get the organs, and it is the poor or criminals, who are forced to give them up. It is a nasty business.
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