I’ve never really given much thought to organ donations, partly because neither myself nor anyone I know personally has ever done one, or being in dire need of one. This makes it a bit difficult for me to ponder the idea of a law that forces families of recently deceased to donate the organs of their loved ones to the sick but alive. I guess in the end, the question really is
What use do the dead have for organs anyways?
I am a big fan of helping people out and giving out what I have excess of. Organs however, is where I think I draw the line, especially when the organ is being taken out of people I love without their prior consent when they were alive and well. Whatever happened to your body, your choice? Or is it just yet another feminist prerogative?
To answer the question I asked, earlier, dead bodies don’t need organs. But if we’re donating all organs from recently diseased, will we even bury anyone? I want you to think of it in two ways.
First, human beings are a collection of organs. If dead people start to be seen as the living’s repository of healthy organs, that is all that they’ll be – just a store for organs, and all just be the next walking store of fresh organs waiting to be put under the knifef or our precious organs. And if we pull apart their organs, we’ll be left with no body to bury, because I know you know eyes, ears and others are all donatable organs. Which opens up to what I want to say next.
We’re people because of our complete being. If we’re going to start digging into people like they were on the shelves of an auto mechanic store for parts, imagine what our last memories or images of the people we love will be. Picture this. They’re taking your best friend to the cemetery and he’s stuffed like a Turkey because the government thought it wise to collect every intact organ in his abdomen and chest. You’ll do a burial alright, but you just won’t feel like you’re burying your friend because he’s not complete.
Even though I don’t subscribe to the idea of forcing people to donate organs of their loved ones, I think if something close to this were to be implemented, there could be a better way to do it. The government could create benefits for people who are willing to donate their organs if they die. This could be peoples last efforts to support/cushion their families after their death. I think I’ve heard that this something like this is currently possible, but I am not sure as I have not heard firsthand from someone that has seen it actually play out.
What I did hear though was about how medical schools secure cadavers for teach their students. I heard people volunteer or consent for their bodies to be used for these cadaver studies after their passing in return for some monies to be paid to their families. In another version of the story, I heard Teaching Hospitals just grab an unidentified dead person in the mortuary and hand them over to medical schools. As to which of these is true, I don’t know. Maybe you might have an idea.
Whiles I would be against a decree of this sort, I have to acknowledge that evil as it sounds, it will likely have saved a lot of lives. The number of people that die because of organ failures is alarming, and this decree by the government will have helped bring this down on the chart of causes of mortality. But still, I still believe there is the need to respect the dead and their families, and at least ask for consent before chopping them up. Dead people were once living and respected after all. I don’t see why that respect should end with their death.
Let me know what you think in the comments about this, and about the whole topic of a forceful organ donation decree from the government.
All images used here are mine
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