Organ Donation

ARE YOU AN ORGAN DONOR ?
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT BEING AN ORGAN DONOR ?
Have you any fears about donation. How would you feel if a member of your family was desperate and someone refused to help. ?
Is it Moral or Immoral. ?
Could other body parts be used.?
What do you think of animal body parts being used on humans.?

When I am gone they can have any part of my body that they wish. I carry a donor card and always have done. In fact I think its time I renewed it as I still have the old type and I believe it is different now. I have always donated blood, but they will not take it any longer.

As I have no beliefs I don't care what happens to my body, if it can be of some help to someone then they are welcome to it. After all I will have no further use for it.

Its the same as if I was in need of a transplant, I wouldn't care where it came from. As long as it did the job I would accept a rats liver or kidney and I hate rats.

Phil

Yes I suspect if our lives depended on it that would be the case.

I often think people who refuse blood transfusions because of their faith must have such a strong faith.

We cling to life.

Denise

I have often heard of people refusing blood transfusions and other medical aid for others such as their children or spouses who are unable to act for themselves. I have not heard of that many refusing medical intervention for themselves.

Phil

I may look like I deliberately like to swim against the flow but I don't think we know enough about death and whats beyond. Yes there's the old rock solid statement "when your dead your dead" nothing else for it. But there is not one of the millions of atoms that filled your body dead. Science knows now that since the begining the atom has lost none of its life the electrons and neutrons are still whizzing around each other so there is only change not actual death "without life".

Who's to say that if a particular part of your body is kept alive in another that it has no effect on the spirit of the donor. You can say that we cant see the spirit its not there its gone, but we thought that about the body and have been proved wrong by advancements in science who knows what other advancements may prove.

Leaving the science behind, I find the thought of the remains of a loved one being systematically gutted and stripped of useable organs like a side of beef in an abattoir as a betrayal, a betrayal of love.
We come into this world and we have to leave, its just a matter of time for all.
PJ

Hypothetical situation.
Ones wife dies in a car accident. You do not want her body defiled.
Your daughter in the same accident has an organ damaged and she is near to death.
one of your wifes organs can save her.
You loved your wife, You love your Daughter what do you do. ?
If you say go ahead with the transplant because you can't bear to lose your daughter.
What about the daughter that you can save for someone else. Her family love her too. Food for thought SB

SB,What a convoluted horror story to go to bed on,
I will deal with that when and if I come to such a catastrophe but it has no bearing on the way I see the transplant industry.
I cant dream up such a horror story to twist round to let you see the other side where you give over your loved ones like their nothing, to be shared amongst the unlucky, the alcoholics the drug abusers, the little children kept alive on machines ex footballers and yes the tear jerking cases that seem so right.
I can remember when there was no trade in body parts and transplants were only in the mind of Dr Bernard, people were born and they died and despite the development and astronomical costs loaded upon the NHS, and still the people are born and they die.
I wonder if the accountants have looked at the cost against the extra hours given to these unfortunate people, and were they quality hours free from medical support.
I think genetic development and isolation of the offending genes from birth is the more human way to go.
PJ

Interesting Pj but I so don't agree with you.

I don't think my bits would be much use to anyone but life is precous and I would not refuse an organ if I needed one and so I should make mine available too.

We are put in the all consuming fire or to make good compost,neither are kind acts really.

I always find it slightly odd that we sing away why we cremate our loved ones.Strange us humans eh ??

I beleave that a part of us leaves the body to become something else but don't know what or how but it is the feeling I have.I think the part of us we need for the next step of the journey leaves the body when we say Goodbye.

In the meantime let us savour LIFE.

PJ

I am partially in agreement with you, as we have all heard horror stories about transplants and organ harvesting in other parts of the world. It can in fact be big business.

I think in this country we are a little more selective, I don't think organs are handed out to any drug or alcohol addict who puts their name down on a list. I understand that they have to be free of their dependency for a prescribed time before they are put on the waiting list. Only they can decide to stay with the programme after the operation has taken place.

There have been one or two who I thought undeserving of a transplant but I'm sure there have been many more rewarding success stories.

As far as the anguish of the loved ones we leave behind, if it is too much for them, then they have the right of veto. They can supersede the wishes of the departed if they so wish. I do think that we have to take into consideration of our loved ones. Both my wife and I are happy to donate any organ that is deemed usable, but I wanted to go further and donate the whole of my body for research purposes. My son would have none of that so we compromised.

At the end of the day, I'm sure there is not one of us who is not suffering a pain filled debilitated existence who would not give everything they owned for a few more hours, days, years of existence

Phil

Well put Phil, I'm with all of that. SB

Phil,
Global organ donation, at worst is a vile trade that exploits the poor and the desperate for the benefit of the better off.
Here as you say "we are more selective", not so now.
The criteria once used as to the level of health and quality of the donated organs to be used has been down graded and are using organs that have a had a fair amount of abuse because people, us, the Nation are not donating in the quantity required,
I'm sure there can only be a handful of people in the country who have never heard of the "Donor Card" so its not as popular as the transplant authorities would have us believe, and that's why, when they get an appealing case they give it the Hollywood treatment for maximum coverage and to raise the emotional stakes.
The Donor Card authorities are trying to make it the standard that the whole nation are elligable donors like it or not, and to opt out we must carry the opt out card or put our names on a data base.
If that happens Phil, how can your son make sure that your not processed against his wishes, and all the other people who want a say in what happens to their kin.
PJ

PJ

Yes I have read the newspaper stories and articles concerning what you mention. The Health Authorities pipe dream of making everyone into a potential donor, I think that is what they will remain pipe dreams.

If it were to become true then all I would have to do is opt out of any part of the agreement that my son & daughter didn't agree with. If that was not feasible then I would withdraw from the scheme altogether.

I think although we may have idiots running our Health Authorities, I don't think they want to cause strife. What about the religious faiths that forbid this sort of thing. Would they be excluded piecemeal from this mass organ harvesting. Possibly we would end up with far more organs than needed. What would happen to the excess, would they be sent abroad and end being sold on the open market?

In reality the amount of organs that are able to be harvested are very few. The donor has to die in hospital. Most of us who carry a donor card die at home, so our organs are never even considered for use.

Phil

Phil.
I now know that Organ donation is such a very personal choice, I suppose like all subjects it depends on what you take too the subject and your frame of mind when first you approach it that determine how you will see it from then on, unless, you take another objective look at all the for's and all the againsts.
We had some family and a couple of friends here today so I put it to the room over coffee and donuts, all but one had never given it any real thought, and the subject was soon swept aside in favor of the weather and holidays,
(that could have been my fault, I wouldn't make a good speaker).

Phil I don't know if any Faiths are for or against organ donation.

Some Scientists think genetic engineering will one day be the end of the donor trade and the more resources put into now the quicker we shall see good results All our defects and weaknesses are written on the Double Helix of our DNA. We are an advanced nation and the scientific way, I believe is the way to go.
PJ

PJ

You are right mate organ donation is a personal decision. I can see the point of those who do agree with it and I also see the point of those that don't. You make a valid point about religion as well. I was always under the impression that there were more religions against it than there were for it.


I took a little look on the internet and found out I was wrong (as usual) There really is only the Shinto and Roma religions that are against it. Of course you could count the Jehovah's Witnesses who don't ban organ transplant will not allow blood transfusion. As you can not do most transplants without blood transfusion I would count them as well.

I cannot agree with you enough about genetic engineering. I too see this as the way forward. Anyway we can start to eradicate some of the many defects and hereditary diseases that some of us are born with ore prone to because of our genes the better this world will be.

Phil

This may seem as though I have gone completely mad, and you wouldn't be the first people to think this of me believe it or not.
None of us wants to lose our relatives and friends any earlier than we have to. But this business of making people live longer and longer is certainly not in this planets best interest, in my opinion.
Now we have Transfusions, Organ Transplants, Inoculations, Medicines, Operations and whatever else to make us live longer and longer. There are more Cases of Demetia and certain Cancers these days because in time gone by people would have died naturally before these diseases appeared and were known.
The one fact we all know is that this planet cannot sustain such large populations and future projected populations.
So what do we do to help this situation. We give women fertility treatment. Then we make people live longer, we poison the planet. melt the ice caps, flood a few countrys and make less land for more and more people to live on.
Oh and yes the deserts are growing too. All this and certain religions are against birth control and promote their own selfishly to have as many children as possible. Now is it me or have I got the sums wrong. SB