Organ donation after death: thoughts and experiences?

Hannah Edwards Active Member

111 messages
joined Sep 2006

#201 · Jul 9, 2005

Edward Green said:Once you're dead, it's not yours anymore, because you don't exist.

I don't know. Personally, I prefer the idea where people who are strictly against it have to declare it upfront, rather than forcing those who want to donate to speak up first. For instance, if it were up to me, I’d be fine with being torn apart—take whatever can help someone else, burn the rest, and scatter the ashes somewhere. But honestly, I'm just lazy, and I really can't face going to some doctor's office to sign a formal statement. Or wherever you sign that stuff. I'm just not interested in making decisions that affect my life while I'm still breathing, let alone messing with what happens to my body once I'm gone. 😁

Actually, that legal issue affects you while you're alive. Not when you're dead. Nobody needs you once you're dead.😁

While you're living, they treat you like an organ farm. You're walking down the street, but there are already lines drawn all over you in red ink, marking up which organs are available. 😉

It bothers me that even when I'm healthy and alive, I'm treated like a potential carcass waiting for a butcher to come along, slice me up, and sort the useful parts from the waste based on whatever they need at that exact moment.

If I could, I'd go find a way to just erase those marks from my body entirely.
😉
But then again, that's just politics. Politics has stepped in and complicated what should be a noble, personal choice made by people who want to donate their organs. That's the part that actually gets under my skin. I have nothing against donation itself. 👋

Edward Green Regular

335 messages
joined Sep 2008

#202 · Jul 9, 2005

Hannah Edwards said:They’re treating you like a walking organ farm.

Honestly, I don't feel like an organ farm at all.🙂

Megan Reed Active Member

170 messages
joined Sep 2005

#203 · Jul 9, 2005

Amanda Turner70 said:The point is, it doesn't matter if they donate an organ or just get rid of it some other way; what matters is that you don't end up being "fully intact" in a race against time. I think it's better to give it to someone than to just let it go to waste...

Look, you really need to read what Scott Allen10 wrote. Harvesting organs isn't some simple thing where you just get hit by a bus, rushed to the morgue, and suddenly all your organs are gone. Sure, if you wake up at an autopsy missing a few things, nobody's going to run an investigation, but using organs for actual transplants involves a much more complex process than that.

I mean, if you explicitly opted out during your life, they aren't going to take your organs to give to someone else. But if they end up somewhere else entirely... 😬

Scott Allen10 said:I’m only bringing this up to emphasize that if someone passes away in any other department—like Neurology, Internal Medicine, or Surgery—it is physically impossible to harvest their organs. It’s just not how it works. Furthermore, it's impossible to "take" anything for a transplant from someone who is already deceased. Or even better, that whole urban legend people love to tell about "finding someone on the street and harvesting their organs"... that only happens in fairy tales.

Megan Reed Active Member

170 messages
joined Sep 2005

#204 · Jul 9, 2005

Edward Green said:I honestly don't get why someone wouldn't want their kidney to help somebody else. What's the point if they're already dead?

Alright, I'm with you on that one.

But then again, I'm just as much in agreement with this:

Hannah Edwards said:Neither the government nor any single individual should ever be granted absolute authority over my organs—whether I'm breathing or not.

See, it's the same logic. Why pass a law saying all deceased bodies should basically be donated to medical schools? They're already struggling with a chronic shortage of "teaching materials," as they call it. I doubt everyone would be screaming "they're just corpses" if it were framed that way, even though those cadavers would be incredibly useful too.

That said, yeah, transplantation definitely saves lives in critical situations, and there's no denying how vital that is.

😵

Michael Perez5 Active Member

81 messages
joined Nov 2004

#205 · Jul 9, 2005

You know what? This whole post about how complicated organ harvesting is... complicated my ass!

Someone please tell me it isn't possible to just kidnap someone, drive them out of town, knock them out in some van, grab an organ, throw it on ice, and rush it to a specific destination within a few hours...
And then just dump the body in a field somewhere...

Because honestly, that’s exactly how it used to happen!

Megan Reed Active Member

170 messages
joined Sep 2005

#206 · Jul 9, 2005

I mean, look, if you just throw a surgeon and an anesthesiologist into a van... 🙄

Then, if you get lucky enough to find someone whose organs actually match the recipient—which, obviously, requires a crystal ball for that part.

Honestly, I don't even get why people bother going to medical school. You could basically get the same results by just grabbing the butcher from your local grocery store. 👍

If it’s that easy, why on earth do we only have three or four transplant centers in the entire country? Why can't this be done on every street corner?

Now you guys are seriously starting to talk nonsense. ☕ Seriously, there are a FEW paranoid people in here.

Megan Reed Active Member

170 messages
joined Sep 2005

#207 · Jul 9, 2005

Michael Perez said:And they actually pulled that off!

Well, in my world, Santa leaves me a present under the tree every single year!👍

Michael Perez5 Active Member

81 messages
joined Nov 2004

#208 · Jul 9, 2005

Megan Reed said:Well, you know, if you just toss them into a van along with a surgeon and an anesthesiologist... 🙄

Plus, you just have to get lucky and find the exact person whose organs actually match the recipient. Which, obviously, you’d need a crystal ball to figure out.

Honestly, I don't even get why people bother going to medical school. Everything could be done so easily if you just grabbed your local butcher and called it a day. 👍

And if it's that simple, why on earth do we only have three or four transplant centers in the entire country? It feels like it should be possible on every street corner.

Now you guys are seriously just talking nonsense. ☕ Honestly, there are some really paranoid people in here.

No, no, no... I wasn't suggesting we just pick people at random. There are medical records, there are specialist exams. There are regular checkups... I'd write out what I posted here a long time ago, but I really don't want to deal with more trouble, so I won't. Let's just say that things like blood types can be handled quite easily, much like livers or kidneys... Now, whether those organs actually belong to the recipients or not, I truly don't know. But yes, it has happened that they were removed from someone's body (in many cases).

Without any fairy tales or anything. 😢

Henry Campbell5 Active Member

77 messages
joined Jun 2008

#209 · Jul 9, 2005

Megan Reed said:I mean, just throw a surgeon and an anesthesiologist in a van... 🙄

plus, you have to pray you find someone whose organs actually match the recipient. Which, obviously, requires a crystal ball.

Honestly, why do people even bother going to medical school? It’s so much easier to just grab your local butcher and call it a day.👍

If it's that easy, why on earth do we only have three or four transplant centers in the entire country? Why isn't this happening on every street corner?

Now you guys are seriously talking nonsense. ☕ Actually, there are some PARANOID people in here.

Well, those few transplant centers actually matter when it comes to organ donation. I guess it's way simpler to harvest from a corpse, but hey, what do I know? I'm just a layman...
And yeah, I am paranoid. I don't want to be in a situation where my life is hanging by a thread and doctors decide to cut that thread just because I didn't sign a paper saying "no" to donation—all so they can give my parts to someone else even though I could have survived.
Look, I'm not against organ donation, but surgeons shouldn't have any clue what's happening with my organs while they're operating on me.
Maybe we need a system where someone's wishes regarding their organs are unlocked immediately after death. Like some kind of secure database that only becomes accessible once a person has passed away.

Kenneth Hernandez67 Regular

351 messages
joined May 2005

#210 · Jul 9, 2005

You people are delusional... folks spend years fighting just for the right to die with dignity, yet you're out here imagining organ harvesters lurking around every corner waiting to snatch your kidneys and heart 🙄

Maybe try actually educating yourselves on the strict protocols surrounding organ transplantation before you start panicking like this.

For God's sake, according to your logic, every passed-out drunk on a park bench is a target. 🙄

Michael Perez5 Active Member

81 messages
joined Nov 2004

#211 · Jul 9, 2005

magic... if you want them to actually notice the difference, I guess you're just going to have to fight tooth and nail for it...

Kenneth Hernandez67 Regular

351 messages
joined May 2005

#212 · Jul 9, 2005

Really?

I’m telling you right now, they’d probably cut your finger off just to get their hands on that ring, you know?

What then? You going to walk around with a full security detail? Are you just never leaving the house again?

Oh, please, give me a break.🙄

granitebadger25 Member

46 messages
joined Mar 2004

#213 · Jul 9, 2005

Michael Perez5 :
Let's just say those differences are incredibly easy to fix, just like a liver or kidneys...

Oh sure, it's a total piece of cake to just go in and extract them, maybe even in a hallway, right? 🙄

And you think that's a valid reason to claim the law is poorly drafted?
Don't you realize that in the case of these criminal acts you're imagining, the perpetrator wouldn't give a damn whether or not you signed a donor card?
Do you honestly believe that would stop them?

Amanda Turner70 Member

22 messages
joined Sep 2005

#214 · Jul 10, 2005

Megan Reed said:Look, just read what Scott Allen10 wrote. Organ harvesting isn't some simple thing where you’re just walking down the street, get hit by a bus, and they haul you to the morgue and strip your organs bare. It's not like that. If you end up missing a few things after an autopsy, nobody's going to flag it, but actually pulling organs for a transplant? That’s a much more complicated process.

You missed my point—obviously, I know it's not that simple. But I'm saying that once you're dead, the end result is the same for you: you're getting buried a few organs short. Whether that organ ended up being cremated because it didn't "fit" nicely in the corpse, used for some research study, or donated to a living person—it doesn't matter. Some people act like they're fighting against "automatic donation," but they don't even realize that through standard autopsies, people are already losing parts of themselves and aren't even being buried "whole" as it is.

Betty Hill82 Member

49 messages
joined Nov 2004

#215 · Jul 10, 2005

"Waiting for an organ" is just the politically correct way of saying "waiting for someone to kick the bucket so they can harvest their organs and give them to me." Kill me (and feel free to distribute my organs 😁), but I don't see any humanity in this process.

And I fail to see what any of this has to do with autopsies.

Michael Perez5, you better watch your back so nothing happens to you in somewhere like Belgium or whatever, leaving you stuck in a hospital.

Not only do they have all the equipment, but they also have piles of wealthy, sick people with premium insurance sitting on those waiting lists. 😈

rustymoose54 Active Member

182 messages
joined Jun 2006

#216 · Jul 10, 2005

Betty Hill82 said:"Waiting for an organ" is just the politically correct way of saying "waiting for someone to kick the bucket so they can harvest their parts and give them to me." Honestly, just kill me now (and feel free to split up my organs 😁), but I don't see anything remotely humane about that whole setup.

but people die regardless...

It’s actually more humane to take a kidney from a cadaver than from a living donor—I mean, taking it from a living person is a massive health risk for the donor, right?

btw, those transplants in India you were talking about—they use living donors there; people literally sell off a kidney for cash. 😢

If I'm reading you right, you wouldn't even agree to a transplant because being on a waiting list feels inhumane? Are you really sure you'd be happier spending three weeks on dialysis if your kidneys suddenly quit on you and there isn't a living donor available (unless maybe in India 😉)?

Scott Allen10 Regular

315 messages
joined Jun 2005

#217 · Jul 10, 2005

Henry Campbell5 said:I mean, those three or four transplant centers really matter when someone's getting an organ, but honestly, I feel like it’s way easier to just take them from someone who's already passed away—though what do I know? I'm just a regular person...
and frankly, I'm a little paranoid about it. I'd hate to be in a spot where my life is hanging by a thread and they decide to cut that thread just because I didn't explicitly sign a paper saying "don't take my organs," effectively giving my parts to someone else when I actually could have pulled through.

Don't sweat it, man, that kind of thing is physically impossible. No one gets harvested unless their brain death is absolutely, 100% confirmed. If a brain scan—which is pretty much standard practice to prove brain death—shows even a tiny trace of blood circulating inside the brain, nobody is touching that patient, no matter how desperate things get. For that to happen, you'd need a massive conspiracy involving the anesthesiologist and their tech monitoring the patient, the nuclear medicine specialist faking the results, the imaging engineer, the neurologist or neurosurgeon reviewing the scans and signing off on the death certificate, all the nurses and techs in the ICU, the hospital coordinator, the national coordinator, the entire transplant team that shows up, and basically anyone else in the hospital who hears a whisper about it. It's just not going to happen.

Scott Allen10 Regular

315 messages
joined Jun 2005

#218 · Jul 10, 2005

Michael Perez5 said:You know what, this whole thread about how "complicated" organ harvesting is... complicated my ass!

I mean, someone please tell me it isn't possible to just snatch someone up, drive them way out of town, knock them out in some van, rip them open, grab what you need, put the organs on ice, and rush them to a specific spot within a few hours...
Then just dump the body in some field somewhere...

Because honestly, that kind of thing happens!

As far as I'm concerned... it's totally doable!
To be more precise, it’s actually pretty easy to drag someone out of the city and use a van to harvest organs... but definitely not for a legitimate transplant.

Let me break it down for you so it makes sense... an organ explantation has to be performed by a surgeon who is a total master of transplant medicine—someone who actually practices it daily, even if they're just assisting the lead surgeon. You can't just grab any random doctor off the street. You have to know exactly how to access the organ, which vessels to tie off first, where to cut the arteries, veins, nerves, ureters, and the portal bloodstream... plus you need to know exactly which solution to flush the organ with so it stays viable for a transplant and all that.
These specialists only work in specific units where transplants actually happen, and there are only a handful of them in the entire US. And don't even get me started on the surgical techs and perfusionists who come as part of the "package" with the doctors. Then there's the anesthesia team, who absolutely have to be right there in the room too.
So, every single one of those people would have to be complicit in a murder. And what's even crazier is trying to trick a hospital into accepting an organ of unknown origin and cause—with zero paperwork—and then transplanting it into someone without anyone catching on...

It's wild. What can I even say...☕

Michael Perez5 Active Member

81 messages
joined Nov 2004

#219 · Jul 11, 2005

Alright... the arguments are all there... what's true is true...

jadesailor14 Regular

314 messages
joined May 2006

#220 · Jul 11, 2005

rustymoose54 said:If I'm reading you right, you wouldn't agree to an organ transplant because waiting on a list feels inhumane? And you're honestly certain you'd be happier doing three weeks of dialysis if your kidneys fail and there isn't a living donor available (maybe in an Asian country 😉)?

I really doubt anyone keeps those kinds of views once they actually get sick.
Sadly, I've seen firsthand just how much people will do to get healthy when things get serious. Or what they'll go to extreme lengths for when someone close to them falls ill.
It’s funny—usually, the people with the most stubborn stances are the first ones to flip completely.

Organ donation after death: thoughts and experiences?

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