No blocking organ donations

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/31082006/325/relatives-lose-right-block-organ-donations.html

I personally think this is a horrible way for the country to go - being that I am Tomophobic I imagine that I would suffer psychologically if my fiance were to have her organs donated should anything happen to her.
so we made a deal, because she didnt care if her organs were donated or not she carries a donor card, if I die first, then her organs would be donated should it come to that, if she were fatally injured before my death then I would have the power to stop the donation.

having pointed this new law out to her she has now torn up her donor card, and in doing so, the noone will get her organs regardless of the situation.

 

you missed my point, what im suggesting is that there will be less actual donors because they know that depending on how their loved-ones feel they cannot override it, and therefore they would rather not donate at all then put their family through a second traumatic experience

 

That doesn't make any sense. Under the previous law, if they carried a donor card, then they are putting their families through it regardless. Besides, it seems counter-intuitive that someone other than the deceased has the last say on this matter, when the deceased consented to it when they were in good health and sound mind.

 

I'm with Tal on this one. The reasonings for the law are obvious in that its going to prevent the family from going against the doners wishes and frankly we need _more_ doners out there and petty families going against the wishes of their loved ones for such a selfish reason is something that should have been countered a long time ago.

 

I fail to understand why anybody who agreed to be a donor would now tear up their donor card now. Do people seriously agree to be donors on the understanding that their families will block the donation anyway? That makes no sense to me.

 

did anyone read the story about me and my fiance?

 

Yes, but we don't understand it. She either wants to donate organs or she doesn't. I don't understand why she would want to UNLESS her family doesn't want her to.

 

I don't understand why people want their organs after they're dead... I mean, you don't need them, and somebody else may need them. And regardless of your religious affiliation, your physical body (that includes organs) will rot it the ground, so might as well send them somewhere useful, right?

How is it emotionally stressful to a family of a deceased to have the dead's internal body parts taken? You don't actually see them. It's not like they are disfiguring something so at the wake you can't even look at the body.

It is selfish for a family to go against one's wishes of helping someone.

[ September 01, 2006, 05:43: Message edited by: Saber ]

 

It's selfish to hold on to ones organs when you're dead when they could save lives. If I never do anything worthwhile in life I KNOW I will do something worthwhile in death since I am an organ doner.

If I'm on my deathbed I'll be sure to demand a surgeon with a cold storage container is nearby to get my bits as fresh as possible. My heart? That'll save a life. My lungs, study them all you want. My liver, some drunkard could have them. Kidneys? I've got two so that's two lives saved. If you find a use for anything in my body, have it, I certainly don't need it anymore.

 

-Some people believe that it is a violation of their body, or just have a bad feeling about it for that reason. I have to admit I feel that same tendency to shy away from the idea, but I have a donor card regardless because of the life-saving possibilities.

-Shoshino has stated he has Tomophobia and would suffer psychologically if his girlfriend's organs were removed. It doesn't take a psychologist (or even someone with a dictionary to look up things with a tomo- prefix) to put the two things together and figure out that Tomophobia is some sort of deep-seated fear of tampering with the innards. (I can't imagine how hard it must be if you ever need surgery.) Now let's take three situations:

1. She dies before he dies. With the donor card and this new law, her organs would be donated despite Shoshino's dissent, causing psychological harm to him. Now imagine that she cares for him more than, say, a rock, and wishes to spare him that torment. Hence tearing up the card so that he won't have to face that.

2. He dies before she dies. She can always get another card. I don't imagine they'll refuse her life-saving organs just because she tore up a card once to save her one-and-only from psychological torture.

3. They both die at the same time (car crash when they're both in the car, or something like that). In that case, it's the fault of this new law that her organs will not be donated. Because with the law, she has to tear up her card so that if the unthinkable happens, Shoshino will not suffer. But without the law, she could keep the card, and if the unthinkable happened to only her, Shoshino could just contest it, but if it happened to both of them at the same time, he wouldn't need to.

-Some people sign a donor card with the insurance that their relatives will know best whether or not they should, passing off the responsibility, and thus not having to think about it. (That's what I did when I was younger, anyway.) With this new law, those people will be forced to take a good, hard look at what they want, and if they can't decide, will play it safe and NOT offer their organs. This will lower organ donations.

On the other side, some people's organs are not donated because of the pure selfishness of their relatives. This law would prevent that. As an example, my mother wanted to be cremated, but her father wanted her to be buried. I give thanks every time I think about it that I didn't have to fight him on that, because some families have been almost destroyed because of conflicts like that.

To put it simply, this law is neither stupid nor the best thing since giving women the vote. It's got upsides, and it's got downsides. And Shoshino, I'm sorry you got caught on a downside.

[ September 01, 2006, 07:41: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

I don't think it will affect that many people. In cases such as Shoshino's yes but that is an unusual case.

I am an organ donor; my cousin who holds my proxy is not. I doubt that she would contest my wishes but this new law guarantees that she could not. It might cause her discomfort but not traumatic damage. If it did cause her traumatic harm I might reconsider, maybe not.

If I were married I would certainly consider my husband's wishes.

 

im glad that felinoid has read and understood what im trying to say, with regards to my phobia, and how people didnt have to make the choice for themselves.

it doesnt take suffering from a condition like mine to be traumatised by the idea of your loved one being cut open and harvested for organs when they die though.

 

True, but that's soemthing that should be dealt with in life. Also, if person A has the desire to be an organ donor, it shouldn't be up to person B to deny those wishes out of his/her own fears or motivations. For people who don't have your condition, Shoshino, it shouldn't be too hard to set aside one's own desires and respect the dying wishes of a family member.

Think of it in reverse - suppose that organ donation were mandatory, yet someone belonged to a religion that forbade the practice. Upon that person's death, a family member could say "Oh, he didn't really mean that, go ahead and take whatever you need" and jepoardize the deceased's salvation.

IOW, I'm all for the law, and I wish it would be adopted here.

 

i dont think it really works like that for many people.

lots of people just simply become an organ donor because they dont care what happens to them after death- very few people have the 'desire' to be a donor, and my fiance and brothers are perfect examples of the apathy along the lines of "yeah whatever"

dessication of a corpse is illegal

 

Spectacularly easy in fact. So easy that I still cannot understand any reasons against it, despite the comments that there are supposedly good reasons to be against organ donation. I'd almost say that organ donation should just be mandatory and be done with it.

 

Throughout history, Judaism was opposed to body modifications such as piercings or tattoos. One was expected to return to the earth with all the parts God gave one, and to deface God's creation was wrong. However, when organ donation became a reality, Reform Judaism was quick to approve the practice since preserving the quality of life is the ultimate virtue.

The justification was that all of the donor's parts would eventually return to the earth, even if at different times.

 

On the cremation process, organ loss would hardly affect the amount of ashes at all since most ashes are from the bone and nothing else and as far as I know there's very little one can do with somebody elses bones bar make a rather grusome mug and xlyaphone set...

 

i brought this up in the local this afternoon with the regs and staff, all of them who could drive (8 i think) were organ donors, signed up when they applied for their driving licence. when i asked why did they sign up none of them really knew, the replies were along the lines of "i dont care, i'll be dead"

that, to me, is not the sign of someone who truly believes and wants to be an organ donor, that is someone who doesnt really give a damn- and i think that is a very common sentiment.

i got a bit deeper into the conversation with one of the boys from the darts team later in the night, and i told him about the new legislation, he was not impressed, his words were "im going to have to talk to my wife about this now"