If you would like to watch a depressing, distressing yet thoroughly thought provoking movie on the subject, I would recommend the above.
Posted on 05/12/2012 10:09:45 AM PDT by JoanVarga
If that plain statement offends you, then you can take the measure of just how far your thinking has been influenced by the “Imagine” crowd. Specifically, the “imagine no possessions” set.
You have no right to my organs after I’m gone. Sorry. I have every right to be this way without being judged as selfish. Here I draw the line on the march of the boundary-challenged fascists: No. Hands off. Find some other way to save a life that doesn’t involve the inherent corruption of the medical profession when an unscrupulous and hardened surgeon is tempted with my shiny, perfectly functioning kidneys while I’m under the knife for an appendectomy.
Mine.
I’m fine with being an organ receiver from a willing donor. I’m fine with willingly offering surplus parts of my own while I’m still alive. But I am not a passive donor. It’s my living, thinking, breathing choice while I’m alive and my fervent wish to be respected after I’m gone. Mine.
There’s something that disturbs me about the push for everyone to be an organ donor. People that wish to make their flesh a commodity while they’re alive or dead have that choice. It’s when we give that power to another that I worry.
If you own it, be careful to whom you would offer it. Unknown future entities (i.e., gov’t doctors) do not inspire confidence.
I'm not alone in this, apparently. A friend noted in the comments to this post:
I began recommending to my kids and other youngsters that they take up smoking.
Each one has responded with varying degrees of unbelieving protest. The smartest expected that there must be something else I had to say, and so they asked why I would recommend that they put their health at risk?
“Yes, in a world where longevity risks are static, you would indeed increase your risk of dying early by being a smoker. On the other hand, should you ever be in need of life-saving medical care, and decisions about saving your life is being weighed, then it will be too late to recognize the value at auction for smoke free lungs and other organs. Cannibalism has a whole new meaning in this brave new world."
Thanks for putting my attitude on the subject into better words than I can think of.
They can have anything they want of mine when I’m done with it. Even Soylent Green if they want.
Don’t sign that card!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aclS1pGHp8o
It almost feels subversive, doesn’t it? Welcome to the club.
Yes, but if you've signed a card, they will also feel quite compelled to decide when you're "done with it." That's the issue. And it's real.
Ha!!
There are all sorts of ways to make one’s flesh a commodity. Had I expressed it any other way, someone would have pointed out the obvious omission. :O)
You’re not alone. I’m not an organ donor either for the same reasons. I DO think sometimes, when the time is right, to SELL my organ(s) letting my beneficiares receive the money.
53 years young old and I worked hard most of my life and my body lets me know every day LOL
It's just a matter of time before they take anything they want, anytime they want.
And as soon as the central government gets their universal DNA database set up, it will just be a matter of time before people of less value to the government are selected to "donate" organs to people of higher value, whether they are dying or not.
For the "greater good," of course.
Here in CA, when they mailed you your new driver’s license, they used to include a stick-on orange dot in the package. If you wanted to be an organ donor, you stuck it on your license. I always stuck the dot on the license, knowing I change my mind and peel it off.
A few years ago, after I took the renewal test and got my new license in the mail (and admittedly, I had checked “yes” to the organ donor question) it was unsettling to see that the dot was now embedded in the plastic on the license. No changing your mind. It bothered me for years.
Last year when I renewed again, I checked ‘no” at the DMV. The clerk seemed surprised. “You don’t want to be an organ donor?” “No.”
So my new license has no orange dot. But here’s what’s creepy: you’re still required to go on a government website and jump through all their hoops to get your name off the official state donor list. So even if you “opt out” at the DMV and get rid of the orange dot notation on your license, as far as the state is concerned, if you ever opted in, you’re a donor. Period.
I printed out a copy of my “take me off the list” donor receipt and put it with my important papers, and also let family members know loud and clear — if I’m incapacitated, I am NOT an organ donor.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s “no record” at the state registry of my ever having taken myself off the list. Just look at the subtle pressure from the clerk at the DMV. The default position of the state is now “Of course, you’re an organ donor. Why wouldn’t you be? Are you selfish?”
The whole thing just creeps me out. Your post said it all very well.
I’m not an organ donor either. When I was in college, I considered it. However, I worked at a hospital. A teen had been in a traumatic vehicle accident and the hospital kept pushing the family to donate the organs. When the family told the doctors that their daughter squeezed their hands slightly when asked to do so, the doctors told them it was not possible. The family was “feeling” what wasn’t there to make themselves feel like she was viable. Long story short... the teen was later transferred to a rehabilitation facility. She would never be like she was before the accident; however, she was able to re-learn how to walk (with a gait), talk, etc... That one case has always stayed in my mind.
The only way I would become an organ donor is if it could be only reserved for a conservative. The very last thing I would want to have my organs go to is a damned Democrat.
There are a couple of organs you could donate that are desperately needed by the GOP leadership.
I ride motorcycles AND I refused to donate my organs.
But everything has its price especially if I can live with one kidney.
I’m surprised if not more people are refusing to sign these donor cards, instead their should be a Kelly blue book value of used human parts and they should instead be bought.
So if I get killed on the highway then my family can get the monies from my auctioned surviving parts.
Why give it away when times are tough? Think of the funeral cost at the very least!
Illegal under current law.
If you would like to watch a depressing, distressing yet thoroughly thought provoking movie on the subject, I would recommend the above.
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