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March 28, 2024, 05:56:04 PM

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Organ donation

Started by dctprime, October 05, 2014, 01:35:47 AM

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dctprime

I lost my driver's license from my wallet a couple of weeks ago, and I received a replacement in the mail on Friday. Included in the envelope was a consent form for organ and tissue donation. I'm not exactly sure why the Ministry of Transportation saw fit to send the two together (I assure you that it's not a testament to my driving ability), but it did get me thinking more about organ donation.

For me, organ donation sounds like something I probably should do, if I ever was in the unfortunate situation of being braindead and hooked up to a ventilator. I mean, I can't really think of any reason not to do it. It's not like those organs are going to be of much use to me anyway, and there's that nice bit about getting to save the lives of up to 8 people who are on the transplant list. But so far I haven't been able to bring myself to sign the consent form. Maybe it's the thought of facing my own mortality that unnerves me and holds me back.

I do like how the form allows you to pick and choose what organs/tissue you want to donate, though. My vision is shit and I don't exactly have the well-conditioned cardiovascular system of an elite athlete, so I can't imagine many people wanting my eyes or heart. But I don't smoke or hit the bottle too hard, so my lungs and liver are probably in decent shape.

This isn't explicitly stated on the form, but I imagine if you ticked off the box to donate your earthly remains to research and teaching, they'd probably use more than your standard set of organs. I took a number of anatomy classes in my university days, and there were dissected human pelvises (with genitalia intact) stored in buckets of formaldehyde in the lab for teaching genitourinary anatomy. For those of you who want to have an impact beyond the grave, I'm sure there are hundreds of medical students waiting to learn about phimosis.

So, has anyone else ever thought about organ donation?

Birdie

Do you have to carry a special card in the UK or is your donor status recorded on some massive database?  My donor status is recorded on the actual licence.

As far as I'm concerned, they can have anything that's useful.