British doctors endorse radical solutions to organ shortage

BioEdge ^ | 2/18/12 | Michael Cook

[Disambiguator]

The pilot for the “Max Headroom” show had a similar theme in it. You could go buy body parts or whole bodies, no questions asked.

[Tucker39]

Dr. Walter E. Williams said it best while subbing for El Rushbo one day. The organ shortage will be solved when a person or their designated executors are allowed to SELL THEIR OWN organs.

The idea that people are supposed to DONATE organs for free, while the surgeon makes $50K a pop and more, never made sense to me.

[NonValueAdded]

And you [rhetorical] thought "we're here for your liver" was just a comedy sketch.

[PapaBear3625]

Then there's the famous case of Dem Governor Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. In 1993 Casey was diagnosed as needing both a heart and a liver transplant. At the time, average wait was 67 days for a new liver and 198 days for a new heart. Casey, needing both, was put into his own queue for combined heart/liver (where conveniently he was at the front of the list) and got his transplants within 10 hours of being diagnosed.

The donor, Mr William Lucas, had been conveniently bludgeoned to death around the same time they discovered Casey needed a transplant.

The point is, I really don't want to be in critical condition in some hospital at the same time that some VIP, who I'm a tissue match for, needs an organ.

[Sine_Pari]

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The best response to “forced” organ donation is that there is a long list of diseases and conditions that make organs unacceptable for donation. And if someone is suspected of having such a disease or condition, there are tests to determine if they have it.

If the test is positive, no “what passes for ethical these days” surgeon will touch it.

But in many, if not all such tests, harmless “simulants” also exist that can give them a false positive.

So if someone carries a card indicating that they have one of the proscribed diseases or conditions, and they consume the proper simulant, this would give them an extra measure of protection against organ snatching.

[prairiebreeze]

•Using body parts from high-risk donors including the elderly, people with cancer, drug users and people with high-risk sexual behaviour.

It's all horrific, but I was especially drawn to the high-risk sexual behavior classification. Prostitutes and gays. But what about the HIV status? What good does it do you to get a new liver from a whore just to find out she/he's got HIV??

I suppose they say they'd test for that first.

[peggybac]

I’m with you 100%. I have it stated in my will that if I’m on life support, it is to be disconnected after 2 years and not a minute before. Don’t trust anyone in the harvest field. “Bio” and “Ethic” in a sentence makes me run the other way.

[healy61]

I have questioned the numbers of comatose patients who revived after being declared brain dead, but were not. The doctors needed the organ and f*** the patient with an injury. One guy was to have eyes harvested within several minutes. He revived. What would the doctors have done had he revived after they took his eyes? Yeah, you know, they would have killed him and went for daquiris after work.

[redgolum]

I have met those who used to work on the “retrieval” side of organ donation. Things like this go on now. I will not sign an organ donor card for that reason.

[sasquatch]

Your reply was more Swift than mine.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

http://instantrimshot.com/classic/?sound=rimshot

[Nowhere Man]

Wait until new organs can actually extend a person’s life beyond a normal lifespan. Larry Niven talked about this in some of his sci-fi, and not in a good way. From wiki:

I think i read thast or a similar story when I was in high school (1982-85) where people were subject to an "organ draft" where if someone needs a kidney, they can take one of yours. Real spooky if you ask me. My grandfather was among the first to hit Omaha Beach with his M1 Garand. He fought and killed people with similar ideas such as these. If this keeps up, not only we may have to repeat the experience again, we might need a beachhead on our own shores.

[Pilsner]

British doctors endorse radical solutions to organ shortage

Live organ donation. Worse than a møøse bite.

[Pilsner]

British doctors endorse radical solutions to organ shortage

Live organ donation. Worse than a møøse bite.