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Organ donation

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by PatrickUK, Sep 26, 2014.

  1. PatrickUK

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    In the UK we have an organ donor register that you have to opt into. I am on the UK organ donor register and my next of kin are aware of the organs I will and will not donate.

    Despite many high profile campaigns, there is a huge waiting list for transplants in the UK and many people die waiting. To address this problem there has been talk of introducing presumed consent in the UK, so you would have to opt out of organ donation, rather than opt in. What do you think to this idea?

    If you are not in the UK, how does organ donation work in your country/state?

    If you have any general comments about organ donation, share them on this thread.
     
  2. NingyoBroken

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    I know you can opt out here. I think you shouldn't be forced.

    But to be honest, I just want to be cremated. If it's possible, I don't even want an autopsy.
    Don't fiddle around with my corpse. Just dispose of it.
     
    #2 NingyoBroken, Sep 26, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 26, 2014
  3. timo

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    In the Netherlands, we also have a system where you have to opt into being an organ donor. I'm registered as a donor, they can take whatever they want after I die. It's not like I need it anymore. And I've seen how an organ transplant can change a life for the better (one of my friends needed a kidney transplantation), so it would be awesome if I can do something like that for someone.

    There has been some discussion about changing it into an opt-out-system like you described and I would love to see it being introduced. I see no problems with it. Too many people just don't bother to get themselves registered and the ones who passionately care about NOT being a donor will opt out asap anyway.
     
  4. shinji

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    In my country we don't have (as far as i know) anything like this... In fact, even for blood... there are usually people lined up that literally sell their blood to whoever comes and asks... It's times like this that remind me of how crappy my country is. Sooo moving to the UK when i win the lotto.

    Me, i don't even know my blood type.
     
  5. PatrickUK

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    You sell blood in Bulgaria? Wow! You can receive a small payment for donating sperm in the UK (attention struggling students :lol:slight_smile:, but blood has to be free here.
     
  6. Hexagon

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    I'm in favour of presumed consent for transplants. People should be able to opt out, I suppose, but too many lives could be saved for things to remain as they are. Under the current state of affairs, I've signed up for transplant. They can have whatever they want, if I'm so misfortunate as to die. Won't be needing my organs then.
     
  7. Quem

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    This is true for me as well. Same country, made the same choice and share the same point of view.
     
  8. Ryujin

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    I'm all for it, I plan on signing up for it anyway, as soon as I can. Once I'm dead, what do I need my organs for, anyway?
     
  9. MintberryCrunch

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    I don't agree with presumed consent, but I cannot seem to recall if that was the policy when I got my driver's license. I feel like you just had to choose one or the other. I opted out, but that's my personal decision.
     
  10. RAdam

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    I would be all for it if I could select : My lunges won't be donated to someone who ruined their lunges by smoking, my kidneys won't be donated to alcoholics. This way I could give people with birth defects or accidents a chance on life instead of people who knowingly ruined their bodies :grin:
     
  11. BiShoegazer

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    So smokers and alcoholics aren't worthy of life saving treatment in your opinion, then?!
     
  12. shinji

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    Are they worthy though, when two lives hang in the balance and only one of said lives has made the choice to smoke/drink?

    edit: is it lives or lifes? Is it a life or a live?!
     
    #12 shinji, Sep 26, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2014
  13. RAdam

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    :eusa_doh:
     
  14. BiShoegazer

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    Choosing who can and can't have access to medical care is a very slippery slope to go down in my opinion. The right to healthcare is, in most sane countries, an unconditional right.

    If we start choosing who is worthy and decide that smokers aren't then what will it lead to? Unemployed people refused healthcare because they don't currently contribute? It's a very scary road to head down.
     
  15. Starfleet

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    Indeed. Is a religious Doctor to be allowed to refuse a transplant for a LGBT? God's Will? What if the alcoholic has a bad liver because they drink to fight PTSD from serving their country?

    Judging people's fitness to treatment is a very slippery, very scary, slope.
     
  16. RAdam

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    :bang:
    Nobody is saying deny smokers and alcoholics any health care related to those ''addictions''. But they are my organs and I would want a say in who they go to wtf is wrong with that?
     
  17. ScatteredEarth

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    It is always said as lives, never lifes. live and life are similar but are slightly different. To live is a verb which means to survive, or dwell in. Life is a noun that refers to anything that can grow, and change, and adapt. (Live can also mean in person, or in real time, English is confusing, aint it? :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:)

    ANYWAY... I'm all for presumed consent. I mean, even if I were to be cremated, why can't they just take the important bits out, THEN cremate me? Or if I was being buried, couldn't they just take them out, and sew me back up so I look good for my open coffin? (I presume they probably do do this.) I mean, why be so selfish as to not give up something you will literally NEVER use ever again, just to let it rot in the ground, or turn to ash in a fire?

    Edit: On a related note, no, I do not believe that smokers or alcoholics should be omited, or otherwise looked as a second or third resort in organ donation cases. It is everyone's priviledge to lead a healthy life, true. But on the same coin, it's also a basic human right to life and to repent his ways, so to speak. I'm pretty sure if I fucked up my kidneys from drinking, I wouldn't want to squander a 2nd chance like that.
     
    #17 ScatteredEarth, Sep 26, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2014
  18. kem

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    I'm a selfish prick. I won't donate any part of my body.
    WhenIf I happen to die, I want my body to be plastinated and preserved under an olive tree, sitting.
     
  19. ScatteredEarth

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    Because that shows unfairness to other people. Not everybody has simply made the choice to smoke or drink on their own terms. Peer pressure used to be a big thing, and in fact still is! Some people got dragged into the lifestyle and couldn't come out, whether it be because of lack of willpower or other, why can't they live well because of a mistake they couldn't get out of when they were younger?
     
  20. BiShoegazer

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    You said you wouldn't donate your lungs to a smoker thus that means that you'd be quite happy to see that smoker go without that treatment (Your holy lungs) just because she/he smoked.

    You ask what's wrong with it? Well, in my opinion, it's not very humane to decide who you want to save with your lungs and who you don't want to save. A lot of people (Myself included) really couldn't care less what that person did in their life as long as they get the help they need, t'is all dude.