In my experience, some of the people that I have met that aren't organ donors are afraid that the hospitals and doctors will do less to save you if you're in an accident so that they can use all of your organs to "save" many more people. It's dumb, but I've met a scary amount of folks who believe that.
People across the United States have endured rushed or premature attempts to remove their organs. Some were gasping, crying or showing other signs of life
...
A surgeon made an incision in her chest and sawed through her breastbone.
That’s when the doctors discovered her heart was beating. She appeared to be breathing. They were slicing into Ms. Hawkins while she was alive.
That part doesn't matter one single shit to me. So what? I'd be dead. It doesn't matter what happens to my body when I'm dead.
For that matter, why should anyone give a shit? Society has this really illogical view on corpses. We place way too much reverence on empty husks of meat. They are dead. Dead. The person who was there is gone. Their body is not them.
And if the person had some dying wish to be buried or cremated or anything like that, you don't have to honor it. That's the thing about respecting the wishes of dead people; they are dead, their opinion matters as much as the opinion of a brick. You don't honor their memory by spending thousands of dollars to put an empty husk of meat pumped full of chemicals into a gaudy box and bury it in the ground next to hundreds of other boxes filled with empty meat husks. You honor their memory by remembering them. That's it.
Have a funeral. Have a remembrance party. Mourn them with stories, with tears, and with an abundance of drink and unhealthy comfort food. The body does not need to be a part of it.
I very much agree. Also, in a lot of places, that indicator on your license is not legally binding, the decision still comes down to your next of kin.
A system where everyone is a donor by default, but can opt out in a low-effort manner such as sending off a signed declaration, would still allow those with a genuine desire not to be donors the ability to do so, but would greatly increase the donor pool by capturing the majority of indifferent people who simply have not made the effort to opt in.
Opt out is fair at a minimum. Driving is the most dangerous thing we do, and if you’re going to do it, there’s an argument to be made that throwing your organ donor chip into the pot is the least you could do, because you could very well cause an accident someday that costs someone their life.
I agree with you, but as someone who does not drive, I still get a state ID with my organ donor status. If the law is opt-out, it would apply for anyone getting an ID, not just drivers.
I know someone who works in the organ donation industry, and that's what's made me question wanting to be an organ donor more than anything. The dilemma for me boils down to 1. You need to not be dead dead for your organs to be harvested 2. We are not really that good at determining what's good enough dead vs definitely alive but seems dead when time is critical, doctors are busy, and there's people actively pressuring for the transplant to happen.
I think few people would object to it if they were told it was an option, but the default is "no" in most countries and many people just don't think to opt in.
That’s definitely not true. When I was waiting for lungs I originally said I only wanted a high quality organ but I got so sick I signed a waiver saying I would take whatever, some things will disqualify you sure but even things like HIV are fine because it’s considered something that can be managed with meds.
That’s definitely not true. some things will disqualify you sure but even things like HIV are fine because it’s considered something that can be managed with meds.
Then you must not live in the USA and have country requirements that are different than the USA:
quote: 'Very few medical conditions permanently disqualify someone from donating. The short list includes active, spreading cancer and certain infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS (with an important exception discussed below), active hepatitis B or C, active tuberculosis, MRSA infections, and prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These conditions pose a direct transmission risk to the recipient that can’t be managed.'
The exception:
'Since 1988, donating organs while HIV-positive was banned in the United States. That changed with the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, which lifted the federal ban in 2015. HIV-positive individuals can now donate organs to HIV-positive recipients. These transplants currently take place under research protocols with oversight from the National Institutes of Health, and transplant centers must receive specific approval to participate. This shift has opened a new source of organs for HIV-positive patients who previously faced longer waits.'
So generally not acceptable, but sometimes acceptable depending on the organ and the NIH oversight committee.
No I do, I had to agree to it. Granted that was in 2014, absolutely possible they’re trying to ratchet down on it though since keeping organ recipients alive is expensive and often falls on the government I’m sure legislation to make it harder for us to get organs would be cost effective, especially if they weren’t top notch.
If you sit down and give the topic all due fair consideration, yes, there’s only one rational conclusion. However a lot of people just don’t want to think about dying, period, and will switch off on anything that makes them do so. I’m sure there are also misinformed people who think their organs can be freely stolen even if they’re not dead yet if they check that box.
I’m not justifying these people, mind you. I’m just describing how it happens. There is no good reason, but there are reasons.
My only problem with organ donation in the US is the recipient gets a huge bill, including $86,000 for the actual liver. The donors family gets nothing.
So if someone gets into an accident and eventually dies, and is a donor, the family gets a massive bill, and the hospital makes $1M from the recipient.
If the donor's family were paid, it would no longer be a donation, it would be a sale. That opens the door for things like trafficking people to sell their organs.
And the hospital doesn't really make a ton of money from the transplant, they get paid for the entire stay. And if you are there for a transplant you need a ton of care and it costs the hospital a ton of money to take care of you. US hospitals are not a huge money making business.
I've been working in hospitals for 20 years and have seen our finances, they make very little profit on inpatient admissions, most patients are losses. Outpatient surgery and things like that are how they make money.
Take your number of 5.45 billion profit for the industry. There are 6100 hospitals in the US. That's an average of $893,442 per hospital. That's not a lot of profit.
Instant flashback to Repo! The Genetic Opera. The future where "Upgrading" organs has become a fashion statement, and financing organs the norm. If you can't pay your debt, expect the Repo Man, The Night Surgeon!
My dad was an organ donor when his brain died. The next day after the 24 hour period to confirm brain death, I was sitting with my brother and stepmother waiting to have the plug pulled when a lady walked into the room and introduced herself "as part of my father's care team." I don't remember much of what she said because I was focused on waiting for the end and she wasn't wearing scrubs so I didn't really care what she had to say, but she left and after another couple hours I learned that she was from the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) for our State, my dad was a donor, and they weren't pulling the plug until they took him to a different hospital for organ harvesting.
The rest of that day was a blur but my stepmom was pissed, the next morning my dad's body was in the same room, that lady was apparently fired, there was a new guy and gal as well as their boss to talk with us, they told us they weren't going away. Eventually they agreed to perform the harvesting surgery there so we could walk to the OR with him. We were asked if we wanted a "hero walk" where the nurses and doctors take time away from actually helping people to clap for a corpse being walked down the hall, which was the dumbest fucking thing I'd ever heard of.
I wasn't there when my dad's brain died in the middle of the night. I thought I'd be there as his body functions shut down over the course of a half hour, but instead the last I saw of him before he was cremated was his still breathing corpse being pushed down a hallway. I got a text that his heart had stopped a couple hours later.
Across North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin there are only something like 350 organ donations a year because the body needs to be either very fresh and preserved or brain dead to keep the organs intact for harvesting. If you are a donor, it is very unlikely that your organs will actually be donated, but if they are, it can add a whole extra layer of shitty to an already awful situation for the family. Obviously this is just my experience and it's probably unusual for people to be fired so it was probably an especially bad one, but you asked and this is my answer to your question. I'm still not sure if I'm going to be a donor next time I renew my license. I don't think I will until I add a stipulation to my will to allow my family to override it if they feel a need to.
My worry that I'm probably going to write into my AD next time I revise it is that they won't anesthetize me enough to soothe whatever dregs are left of my brain into it's good night.
Mine is reason 2. Ideally yes, the system is set up to not allow for that, but I think we all know that corrupt people tend to find ways around "foolproof" systems.
Mind you, my organs probably aren't worth a darn anyway, but again, some people won't care about that.
I know some people fear that they could end up in the hospital with something not life-threatening but the doctors would harvest their organs and kill them.
It's not a rational fear, but people do be thinking that sometimes.
I'm a donor (woe betide whoever gets anything from me) but I totally understand not being OK with it. This guy says we won't need them, but that's unknowable. Maybe there's a bunch of donors at the gate not being let in until the rest of them gets there. But if ever you have a right to claim ownership over anything, it's your body. Your organs aren't collective property others have a right to. You fuck off, these are my organs is a totally reasonable position.
I've got a family member who has heard tell of folks having their organs harvested while still alive, and that's enough for them to say no. Helps them sleep at night, so fair enough. Your peace of mind has value.
Also I think maybe the catholics are against it? It would fit their whole schtik. Can't day I care enough about what they think to find out though.
While it is the right thing to do, it's the final fuck you from hospital corporations as you still get billed for everything before death, and they bill the recipient >$1M. Organ donation is big money.
I mean.....some organs you do not want. Like my colon. You do NOT want my colon.
Logic says my liver SHOULD be dead by now, but somehow I've had no issues. Sooooooo, maybe give it to an alcoholic? Apperently booze has no impact on my liver. How it survived my 20s, I'll never know.
And my brain??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, sorry. I was just imagining what it would be like if a silverback gorilla decided it wanted to tickle you. Because what are you gonna do? Get tickled by a gorilla, that's what! Oh, also, my brain is weird. Probably don't want anyone being given that.
People are afraid doctors will kill them to get the organs. Doctors don't want to deal with those accusations so will not take organs without clear consent from family. Some places are actually opt-out, doctors have enough legal protection and public trust is high enough that doctors will take organs without waiting for consent from family. In other places...
I remember some case from Poland where as a part of corruption case doctor was accused of killing a patient to harvest his organs. The patient was allegedly in a coma and the doctor disconnected him from life support to get the organs. This was clearly a witch hunt, all the other doctors got scared and transplantations in the entire country went down as a result.
So in many places people simply don't trust the doctors and will not give consent. There's also a lot of superstition and religious thinking involved.
It wasn't that long ago that doctors had to go grave robbing at night, risking their careers and freedom, just to be able to get access to the human cadavers needed to advance medical science. Christianity has always had a real problem with people adding or removing things from the human body, even dead bodies, and the effects of that are still echoing all around the western world in many many ways.
You think it's kind of selfish because you're a rational person. The reasons people aren't organ donors are because the thought of surgery makes them squeamish ignoring the fact that you'll be dead and won't feel it, and the other reason is because they think they need to take the organs with them to heaven. It's mostly religious nuts.
Have you ever pondered about the logical implications of this way of thinking?
Have you ever pondered about who has the "easiest" access to organs? It's gazillionaires like Bryan Johnson who dream of "immortality" (Death Herself entered the chat: "LOL"). Needless to say, a humble human being like us in need for an organ is very unlikely to afford it than a gazillionaire does, you probably know it.
So imagine if there were some kind of law requiring everybody's organs to be donated: who do you think would benefit from such a law?
Furthermore, this kind of law would inevitably become a fundamentum for a new law in the lines "every person should give birth yearly" so gazillionaires could get plenty of organs to choose from a broader "genetic pool" (sic). And, suddenly, world would become a dystopian, Matrix-like human farm, harvesteable by a few "powerful", a world where biological human existence got reduced, through the force of the corporations-states joint venture, to being born, raised and indoctrinated by the capitalist system for the legally-enforced purposes of working and reproducing yearly, until, say, the wannabe-god Jeff Bezos in his 300th anniversary demands another liver from the "peasantry" because he took too much whiskey during his last weekend's trip to his Blue Origins LEO Stargate Resort and he needs so badly to be alive next week so he can order another round of "mandated peasantry breeding & layoff programme" at Amazon.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not against organ donation, much to the contrary; I'm well aware there are humans in need for organs and, given I don't really care (or at least I want not to care) about the fate of this biological garment I've been compelled to wear, I'd happily give mine away (if my organs were still functional despite my unhealthy habits)... except, of course, to gazillionaires; unfortunately, I wouldn't be physically around to refuse a rich my organs, best I could do as a disembodied dæmonic entity would be haunting to hell their mansions and resorts.
In a volunteer-based organ donation, this is pretty feasible for a donor to know who's gonna receive their organs. However, in a scenario such as the one you implied with your "To me everyone should be (organ donors)", together with the increasing enshittification automation of every aspect of society (e.g. a computer system for organ matching with few or no humans in the loop), organ donation would end more like an "IRS tax declaration" system wherein you interface with a piece of code, in order for the organ transplant system to deal with such a sheer amount of donors and receivers. In other words, both the donors and the receivers would likely become mere "matching numbers" inside a DBMS and you, as a donor, would only get a machine feedback "Status of your request: ready for donation" or something in these lines.
Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but I've heard and seen several cases of inequality of access to healthcare. In my country, for example, a rich and famous presenter (Fausto Silva / Faustão) from a big TV station (Rede Globo) got to receive FOUR transplantsin less than two years through our public organ transplant system ("Sistema Nacional de Transplantes") in less time than expected, while less-famous people have literally died waiting for heart and kidney transplants.
Are the recipients or hospital going to pay for my funeral? If no, they can get bent. As someone who works in the admin side of healthcare, it’s just Take, take, take from all sides.
I am registered as an organ donor. Recent events and body/organ mismanaging lead me to like to be removed from that pool.
Examples :
Someone mom was shoot over in a catapult style to test the strength of a military device, no body was able to be recovered for burial.
Not only organs as one think can be used will be harvested, skin and other parts will too. Is all comoditized and the main winners are hospitals and body brokers.yes that's a thing, look it up.
I want my family to have closure when that happens not vein part of weird experiments, if I find a way to just hace like the basic organs removed then do the other ceremonies would be much easier to agree.
You can donate your body so they can sell it for what would be life changing money for your family. And on top they'll disrespect your corpse for free.
If they were honest and we got paid I wouldn't even be mad.
Fwiw I’ve always liked it being opt-out over here in Belgium. In fact, among the European countries it’s just Germany and a handful of others that don’t do it that way.
Being an organ donor isn’t a big deal when everyone is. On the political level it’s just a given.
When my dad died he gave three other people an extended lease on life. It helps me to think about that sometimes.
I can ‘get’ people feeling weird about getting picked apart once they’re dead. But the thing is, you won’t notice much. And they’re going to cut you open at the funeral home anyway. So you might as well go out paying it forward.
They switched from opt-in to opt-out a while back here in the UK. They figured that most people don't care either way, but that most people couldn't be bothered to sign up for a Donor Card.
I'm kind of in the opposite boat. I have enough self-loathing and lack of desire to continue living on this planet any longer than I have to that I'm not sure I want any part of me to continue existing after brain death.
I didn't opt-in before, and I feel bad about forcibly opting out, which is, I suppose, what the organ harvesters are counting on, so I haven't.
Choosing not to be an organ donor basically translates to: "Letting my organs rot (or burn) is more important to me than saving someone's life." In other words: only petty, spiteful, inconsiderate cunts refuse to be donors, just so they can continue being fucktards for a little while longer after dying. And an extra fuck you to people who actually make the effort to opt out in systems where opt-in is the default.
Same for people who choose not to vaccinate, by the way. "I don't care about anyone around me and I will keep doing whatever the fuck I want, no matter how many people I may infect or kill."
In both cases: Fuck you. May you be forced to walk barefooted on legos forever.
DISCLAIMER (because we all know I need one): I purposefully said "choose." Some people cannot be donors or get vaccinated for reasons outside their control. Obviously I do not mean them.
LMAO. Literally I had to take a crap laughing so hard. I just got this vision of the devil getting pissed off people walking on hot coals he's just like we will lego this bitch. Thanks for the laugh this morning...have a wonderful day
70 Comments
Lucky_Acid@lemmy.world · 61 pts · 22d
In my experience, some of the people that I have met that aren't organ donors are afraid that the hospitals and doctors will do less to save you if you're in an accident so that they can use all of your organs to "save" many more people. It's dumb, but I've met a scary amount of folks who believe that.
lemmyman@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 22d
It's not entirely unjustified.
A Push for More Organ Transplants Is Putting Donors at Risk
YellowParenti@lemmy.wtf · 19 pts · 22d
There's also the chance you'll get sold to be blown up
ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 22d
Why do they paywall all the fun stuff behind being dead
fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com · 3 pts · 21d
I consent to this
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21d
That part doesn't matter one single shit to me. So what? I'd be dead. It doesn't matter what happens to my body when I'm dead.
For that matter, why should anyone give a shit? Society has this really illogical view on corpses. We place way too much reverence on empty husks of meat. They are dead. Dead. The person who was there is gone. Their body is not them.
And if the person had some dying wish to be buried or cremated or anything like that, you don't have to honor it. That's the thing about respecting the wishes of dead people; they are dead, their opinion matters as much as the opinion of a brick. You don't honor their memory by spending thousands of dollars to put an empty husk of meat pumped full of chemicals into a gaudy box and bury it in the ground next to hundreds of other boxes filled with empty meat husks. You honor their memory by remembering them. That's it.
Have a funeral. Have a remembrance party. Mourn them with stories, with tears, and with an abundance of drink and unhealthy comfort food. The body does not need to be a part of it.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 21d
On the other hand, they would have let her die if she was not a donor.
Poxlox@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21d
It's crazy to see validated conspiracy right there out the NYT. As it reads, seems these procurement companies need to stop influencing doctors.
treadful@lemmy.zip · 18 pts · 22d
I don't want to provide any profit incentive for my death. Same reason life insurance makes me uncomfortable as well. It's not rational.
finley@lemmy.zip · 20 pts · 22d
In some US states, it’s opt out when you get ID or drivers license. I think that’s a better way to go about it
this_jury_is_hung@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 22d
I very much agree. Also, in a lot of places, that indicator on your license is not legally binding, the decision still comes down to your next of kin.
A system where everyone is a donor by default, but can opt out in a low-effort manner such as sending off a signed declaration, would still allow those with a genuine desire not to be donors the ability to do so, but would greatly increase the donor pool by capturing the majority of indifferent people who simply have not made the effort to opt in.
scarabic@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 22d
Opt out is fair at a minimum. Driving is the most dangerous thing we do, and if you’re going to do it, there’s an argument to be made that throwing your organ donor chip into the pot is the least you could do, because you could very well cause an accident someday that costs someone their life.
searabbit@piefed.social · 3 pts · 22d
I agree with you, but as someone who does not drive, I still get a state ID with my organ donor status. If the law is opt-out, it would apply for anyone getting an ID, not just drivers.
scarabic@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21d
If driving is the reason to make it opt out, I don’t see why that couldn’t be changed for state ID.
Though really I don’t see a problem with it being opt out for all. Many places do it that way.
searabbit@piefed.social · 17 pts · 22d
I know someone who works in the organ donation industry, and that's what's made me question wanting to be an organ donor more than anything. The dilemma for me boils down to 1. You need to not be dead dead for your organs to be harvested 2. We are not really that good at determining what's good enough dead vs definitely alive but seems dead when time is critical, doctors are busy, and there's people actively pressuring for the transplant to happen.
NateNate60@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 22d
I think few people would object to it if they were told it was an option, but the default is "no" in most countries and many people just don't think to opt in.
Astronut@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 22d
I don’t even have an organ. Hell I don’t even know how to play one!
comador@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 22d
Some people such as myself can neither be blood nor organ donors because their bodies are undesirable.
Examples: Cancer, Leukemia, HIV, TB, Leiden V Factor, etc.
People with such issues are often incompatible donors.
Waldelfe@feddit.org · 5 pts · 22d
Also severe allergies. I've been told I couldn't be an organ donor due to anaphylaxis. You can donate blood with heterozygous Leiden V factor though.
CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22d
That’s definitely not true. When I was waiting for lungs I originally said I only wanted a high quality organ but I got so sick I signed a waiver saying I would take whatever, some things will disqualify you sure but even things like HIV are fine because it’s considered something that can be managed with meds.
comador@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
Then you must not live in the USA and have country requirements that are different than the USA:
quote: 'Very few medical conditions permanently disqualify someone from donating. The short list includes active, spreading cancer and certain infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS (with an important exception discussed below), active hepatitis B or C, active tuberculosis, MRSA infections, and prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These conditions pose a direct transmission risk to the recipient that can’t be managed.'
The exception:
'Since 1988, donating organs while HIV-positive was banned in the United States. That changed with the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, which lifted the federal ban in 2015. HIV-positive individuals can now donate organs to HIV-positive recipients. These transplants currently take place under research protocols with oversight from the National Institutes of Health, and transplant centers must receive specific approval to participate. This shift has opened a new source of organs for HIV-positive patients who previously faced longer waits.'
So generally not acceptable, but sometimes acceptable depending on the organ and the NIH oversight committee.
source:
https://scienceinsights.org/who-can-be-an-organ-donor-eligibility-explained/
CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
No I do, I had to agree to it. Granted that was in 2014, absolutely possible they’re trying to ratchet down on it though since keeping organ recipients alive is expensive and often falls on the government I’m sure legislation to make it harder for us to get organs would be cost effective, especially if they weren’t top notch.
scarabic@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 22d
If you sit down and give the topic all due fair consideration, yes, there’s only one rational conclusion. However a lot of people just don’t want to think about dying, period, and will switch off on anything that makes them do so. I’m sure there are also misinformed people who think their organs can be freely stolen even if they’re not dead yet if they check that box.
I’m not justifying these people, mind you. I’m just describing how it happens. There is no good reason, but there are reasons.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 21d
My only problem with organ donation in the US is the recipient gets a huge bill, including $86,000 for the actual liver. The donors family gets nothing.
So if someone gets into an accident and eventually dies, and is a donor, the family gets a massive bill, and the hospital makes $1M from the recipient.
__Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 20d
If the donor's family were paid, it would no longer be a donation, it would be a sale. That opens the door for things like trafficking people to sell their organs.
And the hospital doesn't really make a ton of money from the transplant, they get paid for the entire stay. And if you are there for a transplant you need a ton of care and it costs the hospital a ton of money to take care of you. US hospitals are not a huge money making business.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 20d
A friend's father received a liver, among the line items of the $1.05M bill was $86,000 for the liver. So yes, organs are being sold.
We'll stop there. This is a USD 5.45 billion/yr INDUSTRY. The only people NOT making money are the donor's families.
__Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 20d
I've been working in hospitals for 20 years and have seen our finances, they make very little profit on inpatient admissions, most patients are losses. Outpatient surgery and things like that are how they make money.
Take your number of 5.45 billion profit for the industry. There are 6100 hospitals in the US. That's an average of $893,442 per hospital. That's not a lot of profit.
halfapage@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 22d
Rappe@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 22d
Instant flashback to Repo! The Genetic Opera. The future where "Upgrading" organs has become a fashion statement, and financing organs the norm. If you can't pay your debt, expect the Repo Man, The Night Surgeon!
somebody_to_love@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 21d
People are being a bit cynical in the comments, so I’ll share my experience which is a bit different.
I felt an irrational fear when I checked the box to become an organ donor a few years ago.
I rationally knew it was the right thing to do, but it felt bad nonetheless. Nowadays I just no longer think about it.
So my guess is that many people are scared of it, but no one wants to admit that.
jaycifer@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 21d
My dad was an organ donor when his brain died. The next day after the 24 hour period to confirm brain death, I was sitting with my brother and stepmother waiting to have the plug pulled when a lady walked into the room and introduced herself "as part of my father's care team." I don't remember much of what she said because I was focused on waiting for the end and she wasn't wearing scrubs so I didn't really care what she had to say, but she left and after another couple hours I learned that she was from the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) for our State, my dad was a donor, and they weren't pulling the plug until they took him to a different hospital for organ harvesting.
The rest of that day was a blur but my stepmom was pissed, the next morning my dad's body was in the same room, that lady was apparently fired, there was a new guy and gal as well as their boss to talk with us, they told us they weren't going away. Eventually they agreed to perform the harvesting surgery there so we could walk to the OR with him. We were asked if we wanted a "hero walk" where the nurses and doctors take time away from actually helping people to clap for a corpse being walked down the hall, which was the dumbest fucking thing I'd ever heard of.
I wasn't there when my dad's brain died in the middle of the night. I thought I'd be there as his body functions shut down over the course of a half hour, but instead the last I saw of him before he was cremated was his still breathing corpse being pushed down a hallway. I got a text that his heart had stopped a couple hours later.
Across North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin there are only something like 350 organ donations a year because the body needs to be either very fresh and preserved or brain dead to keep the organs intact for harvesting. If you are a donor, it is very unlikely that your organs will actually be donated, but if they are, it can add a whole extra layer of shitty to an already awful situation for the family. Obviously this is just my experience and it's probably unusual for people to be fired so it was probably an especially bad one, but you asked and this is my answer to your question. I'm still not sure if I'm going to be a donor next time I renew my license. I don't think I will until I add a stipulation to my will to allow my family to override it if they feel a need to.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 21d
I am an organ donor myself but there are a few different reasons people are not
superstition and religious beliefs. Some religions are against it.
a belief that doctors won't try as hard to save them if they can use their organs to save more people
aceshigh@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 21d
Apytele@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 21d
My worry that I'm probably going to write into my AD next time I revise it is that they won't anesthetize me enough to soothe whatever dregs are left of my brain into it's good night.
Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 20d
Mine is reason 2. Ideally yes, the system is set up to not allow for that, but I think we all know that corrupt people tend to find ways around "foolproof" systems.
Mind you, my organs probably aren't worth a darn anyway, but again, some people won't care about that.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 20d
Some people do put way too much faith in those in authority following rules
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 22d
Religion
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 7 pts · 21d
I know some people fear that they could end up in the hospital with something not life-threatening but the doctors would harvest their organs and kill them.
It's not a rational fear, but people do be thinking that sometimes.
Archimedes@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 22d
I'm a donor (woe betide whoever gets anything from me) but I totally understand not being OK with it. This guy says we won't need them, but that's unknowable. Maybe there's a bunch of donors at the gate not being let in until the rest of them gets there. But if ever you have a right to claim ownership over anything, it's your body. Your organs aren't collective property others have a right to. You fuck off, these are my organs is a totally reasonable position.
Pacattack57@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 20d
There are religions that forbid it. A lot of people just don’t care either.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 20d
Nothing in the bible about it.
Pacattack57@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 20d
Not every religion uses the Bible.
RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 21d
I've got a family member who has heard tell of folks having their organs harvested while still alive, and that's enough for them to say no. Helps them sleep at night, so fair enough. Your peace of mind has value.
Also I think maybe the catholics are against it? It would fit their whole schtik. Can't day I care enough about what they think to find out though.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 21d
While it is the right thing to do, it's the final fuck you from hospital corporations as you still get billed for everything before death, and they bill the recipient >$1M. Organ donation is big money.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 22d
I mean.....some organs you do not want. Like my colon. You do NOT want my colon.
Logic says my liver SHOULD be dead by now, but somehow I've had no issues. Sooooooo, maybe give it to an alcoholic? Apperently booze has no impact on my liver. How it survived my 20s, I'll never know.
And my brain??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, sorry. I was just imagining what it would be like if a silverback gorilla decided it wanted to tickle you. Because what are you gonna do? Get tickled by a gorilla, that's what! Oh, also, my brain is weird. Probably don't want anyone being given that.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 5 pts · 22d
Conspiracy theories and actual corruption.
People are afraid doctors will kill them to get the organs. Doctors don't want to deal with those accusations so will not take organs without clear consent from family. Some places are actually opt-out, doctors have enough legal protection and public trust is high enough that doctors will take organs without waiting for consent from family. In other places...
I remember some case from Poland where as a part of corruption case doctor was accused of killing a patient to harvest his organs. The patient was allegedly in a coma and the doctor disconnected him from life support to get the organs. This was clearly a witch hunt, all the other doctors got scared and transplantations in the entire country went down as a result.
So in many places people simply don't trust the doctors and will not give consent. There's also a lot of superstition and religious thinking involved.
Xanthrax@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 21d
Does anyone remember the time the US military blew up a Grandma?
khepri@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 21d
It wasn't that long ago that doctors had to go grave robbing at night, risking their careers and freedom, just to be able to get access to the human cadavers needed to advance medical science. Christianity has always had a real problem with people adding or removing things from the human body, even dead bodies, and the effects of that are still echoing all around the western world in many many ways.
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22d
I don't give a fuck. Take 'em when I go, if you want. I doubt they'll be any good, but recycling's 'in' these days, so ...
CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22d
As a person who nearly died waiting on a new set of lungs the answers in here are absolutely wild and disappointing for the most part
P1nkman@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 22d
It should be opt out, not opt in.
JTskulk@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21d
You think it's kind of selfish because you're a rational person. The reasons people aren't organ donors are because the thought of surgery makes them squeamish ignoring the fact that you'll be dead and won't feel it, and the other reason is because they think they need to take the organs with them to heaven. It's mostly religious nuts.
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21d
Chronical illnesses. For different reasons, both my wife and I are "unfit" both for organ and blood donations.
Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 22d
I had hep c. Can't be a donar.
dsilverz@catodon.rocks · 3 pts · 20d
Have you ever pondered about the logical implications of this way of thinking?
Have you ever pondered about who has the "easiest" access to organs? It's gazillionaires like Bryan Johnson who dream of "immortality" (Death Herself entered the chat: "LOL"). Needless to say, a humble human being like us in need for an organ is very unlikely to afford it than a gazillionaire does, you probably know it.
So imagine if there were some kind of law requiring everybody's organs to be donated: who do you think would benefit from such a law?
Furthermore, this kind of law would inevitably become a fundamentum for a new law in the lines "every person should give birth yearly" so gazillionaires could get plenty of organs to choose from a broader "genetic pool" (sic). And, suddenly, world would become a dystopian, Matrix-like human farm, harvesteable by a few "powerful", a world where biological human existence got reduced, through the force of the corporations-states joint venture, to being born, raised and indoctrinated by the capitalist system for the legally-enforced purposes of working and reproducing yearly, until, say, the wannabe-god Jeff Bezos in his 300th anniversary demands another liver from the "peasantry" because he took too much whiskey during his last weekend's trip to his Blue Origins LEO Stargate Resort and he needs so badly to be alive next week so he can order another round of "mandated peasantry breeding & layoff programme" at Amazon.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not against organ donation, much to the contrary; I'm well aware there are humans in need for organs and, given I don't really care (or at least I want not to care) about the fate of this biological garment I've been compelled to wear, I'd happily give mine away (if my organs were still functional despite my unhealthy habits)... except, of course, to gazillionaires; unfortunately, I wouldn't be physically around to refuse a rich my organs, best I could do as a disembodied dæmonic entity would be haunting to hell their mansions and resorts.
!nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Patnou@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 20d
That's why I would ask could I meet the person it is going to? Or ask how old they are or something.
dsilverz@catodon.rocks · 2 pts · 20d
In a volunteer-based organ donation, this is pretty feasible for a donor to know who's gonna receive their organs. However, in a scenario such as the one you implied with your "To me everyone should be (organ donors)", together with the increasing
enshittificationautomation of every aspect of society (e.g. a computer system for organ matching with few or no humans in the loop), organ donation would end more like an "IRS tax declaration" system wherein you interface with a piece of code, in order for the organ transplant system to deal with such a sheer amount of donors and receivers. In other words, both the donors and the receivers would likely become mere "matching numbers" inside a DBMS and you, as a donor, would only get a machine feedback "Status of your request: ready for donation" or something in these lines.Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but I've heard and seen several cases of inequality of access to healthcare. In my country, for example, a rich and famous presenter (Fausto Silva / Faustão) from a big TV station (Rede Globo) got to receive FOUR transplants in less than two years through our public organ transplant system ("Sistema Nacional de Transplantes") in less time than expected, while less-famous people have literally died waiting for heart and kidney transplants.
Also, and I'm not sure about the veracity of this specific news case I'm linking here, because I was unable to find any other sources confirming this specific case, but it seems to me that there's the possibility that both the donor and the recipient can be simultaneous victims of a fraud from the administration of an hospital: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/organ-transplant-scam-uncovered-in-jaipur/articleshow/112053902.cms
!nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 20d
This is a line of thought I had not considered.
nserrano@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 22d
Are the recipients or hospital going to pay for my funeral? If no, they can get bent. As someone who works in the admin side of healthcare, it’s just Take, take, take from all sides.
No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
I am registered as an organ donor. Recent events and body/organ mismanaging lead me to like to be removed from that pool.
Examples : Someone mom was shoot over in a catapult style to test the strength of a military device, no body was able to be recovered for burial. Not only organs as one think can be used will be harvested, skin and other parts will too. Is all comoditized and the main winners are hospitals and body brokers.yes that's a thing, look it up. I want my family to have closure when that happens not vein part of weird experiments, if I find a way to just hace like the basic organs removed then do the other ceremonies would be much easier to agree.
JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 22d
You can donate your body so they can sell it for what would be life changing money for your family. And on top they'll disrespect your corpse for free.
If they were honest and we got paid I wouldn't even be mad.
SolidEnigma@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22d
Or cash.
lemon@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 20d
Fwiw I’ve always liked it being opt-out over here in Belgium. In fact, among the European countries it’s just Germany and a handful of others that don’t do it that way.
Being an organ donor isn’t a big deal when everyone is. On the political level it’s just a given.
When my dad died he gave three other people an extended lease on life. It helps me to think about that sometimes.
I can ‘get’ people feeling weird about getting picked apart once they’re dead. But the thing is, you won’t notice much. And they’re going to cut you open at the funeral home anyway. So you might as well go out paying it forward.
Abyssian@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 20d
Not only will I need mine, I'll need as many extras as I can get.
flandish@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 21d
because the hospital makes a profit off of donated organs.
arin@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 22d
Freedom of choice, also so people don't murder others for an organ match
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 22d
I live in a opt-out system. That means we are all donors unless we explicitly said the contrary.
I have never heard of a murder for an organ match.
Also I think we are the top one or two in the world on organ transplants.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 0 pts · 22d
Primitive tribes and increasingly many modern Sky Daddy children think they will need the organs after they die
palordrolap@fedia.io · -1 pts · 22d
They switched from opt-in to opt-out a while back here in the UK. They figured that most people don't care either way, but that most people couldn't be bothered to sign up for a Donor Card.
I'm kind of in the opposite boat. I have enough self-loathing and lack of desire to continue living on this planet any longer than I have to that I'm not sure I want any part of me to continue existing after brain death.
I didn't opt-in before, and I feel bad about forcibly opting out, which is, I suppose, what the organ harvesters are counting on, so I haven't.
Yet.
wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 22d
Choosing not to be an organ donor basically translates to: "Letting my organs rot (or burn) is more important to me than saving someone's life." In other words: only petty, spiteful, inconsiderate cunts refuse to be donors, just so they can continue being fucktards for a little while longer after dying. And an extra fuck you to people who actually make the effort to opt out in systems where opt-in is the default.
Same for people who choose not to vaccinate, by the way. "I don't care about anyone around me and I will keep doing whatever the fuck I want, no matter how many people I may infect or kill."
In both cases: Fuck you. May you be forced to walk barefooted on legos forever.
DISCLAIMER (because we all know I need one): I purposefully said "choose." Some people cannot be donors or get vaccinated for reasons outside their control. Obviously I do not mean them.
Patnou@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21d
LMAO. Literally I had to take a crap laughing so hard. I just got this vision of the devil getting pissed off people walking on hot coals he's just like we will lego this bitch. Thanks for the laugh this morning...have a wonderful day