

What You Lose When You Sign That Donor Card  - srl
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204603004577269910906351598.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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tghw
Pretty typical medical FUD. Take a very unlikely situation, add a bunch of
unsupported hypotheses, then bring it all home with a graphic description of
one highly questionable case.

I'm not saying that there haven't been cases where doctors have been
overzealous in harvesting organs, but most doctors are much more committed to
keeping a patient alive than sending them out for harvest.

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alexhaefner
Leslie sharpe is an ethnographer who wrote a whole book on organ donation
after studying the topic called Strange Harvest. This article speaks to a lot
of unnecessary and selfish criticism of organ donation practices. Doctors work
very hard to ensure the patient is brain dead. There are a lot of reasons
covered in the book about why it would make sense for doctors not to notify
family members of what is about to happen to the dead body. The number one
reason is that organ donation usually comes about from traumatic death, and it
is often very difficult for the families to accept that the person truely is
dead. Furthermore, the closer to death you can harvest the organs, the higher
likelihood that the organ transplant will succeed. If the family has a
decision in what happens to the dead body they might try to delay the process
as they grieve and as they try to come to terms with the body truly being
dead, and this can hurt the likelihood of success for organ transplantation.

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SeoxyS
This article is ridiculous. I don't understand, either, why people are so
afraid of dying… it's a normal part of life. For my part, if I have an
accident, I don't care what criteria my death follows, I wouldn't want to live
with a broken brainstem, nor be artificially revived. If my organs can help
somebody else, all the better.

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haberman
The only part that alarmed me is the possibility that you could feel pain
while your organs were being harvested. There are few things that I'm more
afraid of than anesthesia awareness, and they're making it sound like there's
a possibility of a similar thing.

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andrewflnr
Would it be a major hardship to require an EEG test to certify brain death?
Seems like the biggest problem would be that not everyone would have the
equipment, but surely they would have it in a hospital doing organ
transplants? IANAD, though.

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Craiggybear
An EEG cannot and does not provide conclusive evidence of brain death. Far
from it. It is merely a diagnostic tool to assist a diagnosis -- the actual
diagnosis of death is medically and legally dependent upon a physician. There
are criteria for establishing death but they are often out of date (drowning
and freezing spring to mind) and can be poorly interpreted.

They have also got it wrong before -- times too numerous to mention.

Caution is _very_ necessary here. Its a complicated subject (legally, morally,
ethically, scientifically and medically) and questions do need to be asked
about organ transplant practice and ethics from time to time.

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andrewflnr
Right. It just seems like it would be very helpful, as long as we're
standardizing tests.

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baddox
This article wreaks of fear-mongering, but I don't see many disadvantages to
just letting your family/partner/loved ones that you're cool with your organs
being donated, rather than carrying a card. I suppose the only downside is the
possibility of a mortal injury somewhere where your loved ones couldn't be
contacted quickly enough, but for most people that would be extremely
unlikely.

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Cadsby
> but I don't see many disadvantages to just letting your family/partner/loved
> ones that you're cool with your organs being donated, rather than carrying a
> card.

Paradoxical as it may sound, loved ones are not always the most reliable
individuals to carry out your wishes in these circumstances. They often,
understandably, have trouble letting letting go and can't always be counted on
to prioritize your wishes over their own.

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baddox
Either way, you've got to trust someone, since you definitely won't be awake
to make the decision yourself, and probably not around to see the outcome. Of
course, I'm sure you can also draw up legal documents expressing your wishes
to donate, and _then_ tell your loved ones about it. Sure, looking up your
will may take too long for the donation process, but hopefully the existence
of the documents would help make your loved ones more reliable if you don't
think you can trust them.

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mathattack
My selfish 2 cents. Let's say there is a 1 in 1000 chance the doctor is wrong.
(or even 1 in 50) I will live better knowing my death saves 3.3 lives - well
enough to take the risk. Organ donorship is the easiest way to save life
outside of giving blood.

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mathattack
From an economics standpoint I'd like to sell my organs. From a morality
standpoint, the article is disturbing, but you can still have my parts when
I'm done with them.

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crander
I like to believe I own myself. I am not interested in any legal procedure
where an official of the medical establishment can declare my personal
ownership no longer valid and harvest 2 million dollars revenue from my still
warm body. The couldn't do it with my car and it is wrong to do it with my
corpse.

The day my family receives a life insurance style settlement for my death I
will consider it. But not if you cut my people out of the deal.

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mathattack
It's reasonable enough - which is why it isn't morally right to force this on
anyone. (& I do think people should get paid for their organs)

Given your unwillingness to donate organs, would you consider it morally wrong
to be given an organ if you needed one?

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PhrosTT
So you my be only 99% braindead? Therefore you should selfishly screw the 3.3
people who would survive with your organs? Nice article.

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rokhayakebe
Can someone please explain why it cost $750,000 to $2M for a transplant?

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FireBeyond
Because "without it, you will die" is an amazingly effective motivator.

Someone I know recently had a double lung transplant. Even with insurance,
employer support, and many donations from a large community supporting, he was
told that a) the procedure would cost approximately $1-1.1M, and b) that a
downpayment in the order of $400,000 would have to be received PRIOR to
approval being given for the procedure to go ahead. His insurance? Would only
cover $350,000, after the procedure.

His illness? Cystic Fibrosis. His age? 32.

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rokhayakebe
But how does the cost break down?

