Healthcare in the US is run for profit. From 2020 estimates, they charge $1.6 million for a heart transplant. $1.3 million to transplant a pair of lungs, $880 thousand for a liver, and $440 thousand for a kidney. This is what for profit hospitals charge patients while giving your next of kin nothing for the organs that made it possible.
They don’t pay you for your organs. They will still bill your estate for any care other than the organ removal despite your generosity.
I would happily be an organ donor in a country with a non-profit healthcare system. But because of how heathcare is run in this country, I would rather my organs be left to rot.
No.
My mom got double brain aneurism. Had her head cut open to put clamps on the leaking arteries.
Slipped into a coma, few days later doctor came in to convince us for prepping her for organ donor, dad said it was too early.
Another few days later doctors came in being really rude that all she was good for was organ donor. Had a heated conversation with my dad who got tired and said “fck off doctors”.
Few days later she woke up. After revalidation she has a healthy life, this was 37yrs ago, she still lives, she is 71.
My dad told my awake mum and since I was underaged opted me out for organ donor. Needles to say, I am reluctant to opt myself back in.
Optional read: aftermath of the aneurism is that the part of the brain to process visual data was damaged. Other parts of her brain took that role but is not as effective. Her depth perception any further that 10m is gone. She has no vertical peripheral processing, so she has to tilt her head up or down to recognize what she noticed i’ her peripheral, one cannot imagine this seeing something but unable to recognize until you point your head at it :) in the end, very good outcome.
That’s like donating to wikipedia, you think you’re doing a good thing but they reveal pretty quickly how big of a mistake that actually was.
- of course.
- i’ll be dead and won’t need them while others might. how selfish of me not to give them over
I like the system in Singapore. Organ donation is mandatory, though you can complete a form to opt out. If you’re on the opt-out register, you have a lower priority to receive organ transplants. Fair is fair.
I feel like Singapore should be the gold standard of how to do most things that don’t involve the justice system or surveillance. They seem to do most things right. Or maybe I’m just getting a golden picture? Lol
They pay their government leaders really well, which I think is kind of interesting.
Yes I am registered, because I ride motorcycles and I won’t need my organs if I’m dead.
Here in Belgium everyone is a donor unless you register that you don’t want to donate your organs.
Same default settings in France, although your organs can only be used for transplant. Using them for teaching and practicing in medical school still needs your explicit (prior) consent.
Throwing this post out there for a bit of visibility and discussion.
For me, I just registered 5 minutes ago. Idgaf what they use my body for, as long as someone learns something it’s a net positive at no expense to me.
So if a necrophiliac uses your dead body to “learn better techniques” you’re cool with it?
As the great Frank Reynolds once said “Fill me up with cream, turn me into a cannoli, make a stew out of my ass. What’s the big deal? Bang me, eat me, grind me up into little pieces, throw me in the river. Who gives a shit? Ya dead, ya dead.”
Frank is truly a poet.
Shame I won’t be around to share in the experience
Techniques to be a better lover? 🤔 For who?
Yeah, why not? Wtf am I going to do with them when I’m dead?
As a very strong believer in Danny DeVito’s quote, “When I’m dead, just throw me in the trash!”, if any medical party is even remotely interested in dumpster diving for my parts when I’m done with them, they can have 'em. Better than throwing them in a box and taking up land in a cemetary. The less of my remains uselessly taking up space on this planet after death, the better. If I get my way upon my demise, anything they don’t take is going into the incinerator anyway.
Sounds like a Frank Reynolds quote!
My spouse and I are registered to donate our bodies to a medical college. If we can advance medicine in even a small way, it is still a move to better life and health.
Yes, definitely.
I received a live donor kidney transplant over a decade ago, and because of that, my quality of life drastically improved, and I lived long enough to meet my kid and my nieces and nephews.
I’ve got complex medical issues, so my organs might not be any good, but they’re going to be available when I’m gone.
Yes, I don’t see why not. What else am I gonna do with my organs when I’m dead?
Yes I am.
When I die, my organs are no longer of any use to me, but could improve someone else’s life. I’m not sentimental about my corpse. I’ll donate anything that’s still useful. I don’t even mind if medical students use my bones to play pranks on each other. Heck, I think I’d prefer that.
I’m not. I’m aware of how selfish it is but something in my system of belief that I have (undefined? spiritual? no idea?) says that when I’m dead, I should be ALL dead.
Like, if there’s any kind of afterlife, will leaving a functioning part me behind hold up the transition? This even sounds fucked up to me because I’m 100% not religious at all.
I would just prefer all of me to be dead or all of me to be alive. Not fractions of both at the same time.
Don’t think of it as selfish. Your body is one of the few things in this world that is truly, indisputably yours. It’s entirely up to you if you’re comfortable with donation. If you’re not, there’s no criticism to be made.
I’m the same way. The idea of some part of me living on and ending up who knows where freaks me out. (The same way I’d be, while extremely grateful, also weirded out having a transplant and knowing some dead person’s inside me). And I guess I’d like to know with certainty I will be safe and AT REST in some place. Yes I understand that all of this is irrational. But no matter how many times I read these debates, I can’t seem to let go and make it feel okay. Like you, I’m not religious.
So yeah I get that I sound cuckoo, the same way I think religions sound cuckoo. I guess this means I’m spiritual in a way, or just agnostic. Because if I was truly atheist, none of this would matter and I wouldn’t care.
Also I like to think it’s somehow related to me being a bit of a pack-rat (maybe not a hoarder, but definitely a pack-rat). I tend to ascribe feeling to objects and get attached and then can’t throw stuff out. Lol.
That being said – I’d be all for it if my organs were given to a loved one. 100% no qualms about it.
I’m registered to donate, they won’t take them unless I get an expensive genetic test. My brother just passed away, and they wouldn’t let him donate anything because we had an aunt a couple of generations ago who had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a prion disease that causes dementia)
