Cleaning out my purse today I found a little card I had pretty much forgotten about. It says "Organ Donor". I'm curious, will you donate your organs or not? And for what reasons?
Yes, I'm a registered organ donor. Whatever is of use is taken, and what's left goes to medical science. I assume my body will go to dissection, or some study or another. No special reason for the decision other than I can see no good reason not to be an organ donor.
Absolutely. I certainly won't have a use for them once I'm dead, and if they could save someone else I can't think of a single reason to take them to the grave with me. My father actually donated his entire body to science when he died almost 20 years ago, so I've never really attached much sentiment to the physical body left behind after someone passes.
It's pretty much the same reasoning for me, except I don't really believe in the concept of a 'soul'... not in a religious sense anyway. So to me, a dead body is still a person with all the sentiment attached and not merely a hull.
Yeah, it's not really religious for me either...more that the things that make someone an individual a person - like their thoughts, opinions and personality - have left the building. That stuff only lives in memories once someone dies.
Yep, organ donor. My ideal post-death situation would be to get tossed in a forest to get eaten by coyotes and bugs and decay naturally, but ... failing that I'm into recycling
Yes! Donate everything possible! Rational me: My body will help individuals and/or scientists after I'm gone, that's pretty cool. Also, there would be no financial burden on my surviving family members like with burial and cremation. Irrational me: Being in the ground sounds a little creepy. Being incinerated sounds horrifying. Being hacked up in a lab/hospital, eh that's alright.
Without a functioning brain the body is nothing but rotting meat. Assuming I die under normal circumstances, as in, my body isn't smashed, blessed by a machine gun or some other random horrifically fun death, science can have it. Neuroscience always needs new brains to work on, so it'd be more than an honor to have my field of study get mine. The rest of it can go wherever the hell its needed.
What if I told you, you can get all that AND contribute to scientific advance? Body farms are where corpses are being left to decay and the process of decomposition is being monitored and analyzed for forensic research. I'm not sure what should happen to my body yet, but considering to give it to research after organ donation.
Organ donation for me too, and burn what's left. I don't want to take up anymore space on this earth than is necessary, and I don't much like the idea of people crying at a patch of ground that has no meaning to me and the life I led. Ashes to be scattered in a designated woodland, where I can go back to nature again.
Nope, I want all of me burned to a crisp together... no fucker is getting my organs. Knowing my luck my lungs will go to some smoker or my liver to some alcoholic who will squander them. Because somehow they got on a list they shouldn't have been on. Reduced to ashes and spread to the winds, where I land is where I will hunt some poor sab. With any luck my ashes will some how cause a Zombie Outbreak. LOL. Edit: I do believe in a spirit, and needs to be freed of it's flesh cage, once I die.
I actually read a funny news story about this. Thane Chiquinho Scarpa, one of the richest men in Brazil, announced that he was going to bury his $450k Bentley with him when he dies so he could enjoy it in the afterlife. After receiving a ton of backlash, he finally revealed why he said that. “People have condemned me for trying to bury a million dollar Bentley. The fact is, most people bury something a lot more valuable than my car. People bury hearts, livers, lungs, eyes, and kidneys. This is absurd. There are so many people out there waiting for a transplant and you will bury healthy organs that can save so many lives. This is the biggest waste in the world. My Bentley is worthless in comparison to life giving organs. There is no wealth more valuable than an organ, because there is nothing more valuable than life." To answer your original question, I am an organ donor and will gladly give everything I can if it can help even one person live a better life.
Not unless you spell that out in your will. Organ donors just give the organs that can be used, not the whole body. I've specified that upon my death, I will donate my body to a medical school for dissection, because I told my mother that I would get into med school one way or another. And, yes, I'm an organ donor. BTW, did you know that there's a song specifically about organ donation? It's by John Prine (of course) and it's called "Please Don't Bury Me."
Somewhat of an afterthought... as someone who's working with human remains I feel obliged to share a bit of truth with you: while institutes will be immensely grateful for your donation and you'll indeed contribute to science... people being people, those remain are often handled in a manner that's way more practical than reverent. And sometimes kinda morbid. *hides humorously titled photos of herself in an elevator full of stacked bone boxes*
I'll be dead at that point, so I doubt it'll bother me much. If it does, I hear mauling people as a zombie is nice this time of year.
Let's hope they store you in one piece then. You won't get much mauling done when each of your bones is packed in a separate box.
Dunno about the other pieces of meat, but the brain is treated like a priceless vase made of cracking glass created by some deity. That is, until the slicing starts, then its treated like some special ground beef we "ooh" an "ahh" at. Well, sometimes. The "ooh-ing" an "ahh-ing" tend to come afterward, since a melted brain is like strawberry jelly and you can't spend too long slicing it up.
I can see no reason why I wouldn't donate my organs/entire body to people who could make use of those things. Not donating my organs seems like a spectacular waste of resources.
Don't know about the brain. We get the bones here. They're handled with care, of course, but more as objects of value rather than parts of a person. If a humerus joke can be made, it will be made.
Totally unrelated, but due to my childishness, I could see myself playing around with said bones. Playing puppet master with a skull, waving at coworkers with an arm. I'd be fired pretty quickly, I think.
You just need the right kind of coworkers and employer. Yesterday my boss offered me a crate of beer if I set his colleague's car on fire. He laughed, I laughed, we both knew I'd have gotten the beer.
Given it some more thought, I think I will have my organs and entire body donated.... to the Wolves in Yellowstone, My spirit can rest knowing that they are feed. But the rest of my shit is to be burnt to a crisp, reduced to ashes. Can I get someones bones donated to me, I want to to make weapons from your Bones.
