Does the world need organ donors or body-to-science donors more?

Haven’t run into appropriate statistics yet, but it looks like (according to a brief investigation of this) you can actually do a whole body donation wherein you’re still an organ donor, because organs take priority over medical science body needs. If you have nothing salvageable/matching, then your body goes to science. I could be wrong about that though.

I think bodies for science are inherently better. Greater good sort of scenario. One organ to extend a single life versus a body to further reasearch for the benefit of many.

I am neither because I would like to be cremated after death and
a) made into worry stones as a “parting gift”
b) sprinkled onto the memorial dinner like pepper, and then reveal it myself to the guests via video after they’ve begun eating. Only on the meat dishes though, since I’d be an animal product. :P

Half reputable report:

According to http://www.organdonor.gov/, as of September 2009, the categorization for January-June of 2009 is as follows:

Waitlist candidates: 103,485
Transplants: 14,191
Donors: 7,250

That’s some high organ donor demand right there.

This has a question pertaining to whether one can donate to a specific school or cause. The answer says that schools that accept donations only accept locally. A few other sites I’ve read say that the supply for medical donations far exceeds the demand, and the probability of a donor being local to a program in need supports that idea, but still no hard numbers to that effect!

I’m an organ donor because it was easy. I just checked a little box on my driver’s license. My mom told me not to, because she says they don’t try as hard to save you, but I think that’s BS.

I started to write that I don’t care what happens to my body after I die, but actually I do. I absolutely don’t want to be cremated, it’s against my religion, and besides that it’s bad for the environment. I also absolutely do not want to be embalmed or to have any icky chemicals put into my body, the idea is gross, plus, bad for the environment. I don’t want a water tight coffin either. I just want to be put in a pine box or something, with a headstone with nice deep etchings in case anyone ever wants to know who’s there. Or no headstone, I haven’t decided yet. But I do want to be eaten by worms eventually.

@La_chica_gomela Which religion is against cremation?

@casheroo, >>Catholicism was, but I guess they changed their position in the ‘60’s? My understanding is that you can be cremated as long as your ashes remain together. It seems as though the ashes, until 1997, could not be present at the funeral mass due to Catholic sentiments regarding the importance of the body.

Not supports! The probability of local bodies leads me to believe that there should be a high demand for donations…”

I think more organ donors are always in demand. Consider that jsut because you are a donor does not mean all your organs are usable or compatible with a specific recipient. Donors and recipients need to be matched for tissue compatibility before any transplant can be performed. You may be the only patient in any given hospital that needs a kidney.. and maybe even #1 on the recipient list (UNOS) but if there are 15 donors in the place and not one of the is a match to your blood/tissue then you are SOL.

The more donors there are the higher probability of finding a suitable match.

Organ donors can be sure of doing some good. Science might be good or might not.

Actually Judaism. The position hasn’t changed in several millenia, only strengthened by the horrors of the Holocaust. I don’t really appreciate people making assumptions.

@Girl_Powered: Unless the person who receives your organ goes on to blow up a building or gun down a bunch of women at a health club. Plus we wouldn’t even have the concept of organ donation and receipt without science. There are no “sure things” in life.

@La_chica_gomela There are some really good websites about green funerals. It is exactly as you describe it (pine box, no chemicals) and many places plant trees instead of placing headstones.

@Dr_C: But you could argue that you save even more lives, in the long run, by donating your body to science. Just not quite as directly.

@La_chica_gomela Oh, I should have known! I’ve heard about the tattoo rule, which my friend told me…she said it ruins the body, and they don’t bury you in a jewish cemetary because of it. So, not being able donating organs makes sense. I don’t know how strict they are thought

@La_chica_gomela wait, who made assumptions about anything?

Since my husband is now one of the many folks on dialysis, we have discussed this with his doctors. Average wait time for a kidney is about 5 years in our area. It would seem that our part of the world definitely needs organ donors.

@Darwin Does it change the wait if they have certain blood types?

@EmpressPixie i completely agree. In the long run a lot of medical school will be able to train better surgeons since they’ll have a change to practice on an actual human body without the risk of killing someone…. However, short term more donors are needed.
(if you needed a liver which do you think would be more important to you? :P).

BTW i’m all for both situations.. my mother might need a kidney and if i can’t donate we’ll have to put her on UNOS…. also during medical school i got a LOT of practice on cadavers… it realy helps you with anatomy and surgical techniques.

@Dr_C: Thus the basis of my question—on the one hand, an organ provides an immediate solution for one person times however many you are able to donate based on your cause of death. On the other hand, cadavers for doctors and bodies for the farm are always needed. Which is needed more?

@casheroo – Yes, it can if you have either a very rare or a very common blood type, the former making the wait longer and the latter shorter. Five years is the average wait time locally. SInce he is AB it may take longer, but then there are actually more factors in blood to consider than just the basic blood type.

@Beta_Orionis I don’t see why you can’t donate organs and be cremated? Also, I think you can donate multiple organs and be sewn back up and buried. I have heard some negative things about donating your whole body to science, something about a secondary market I think? I need to ask my sister, she is the one who warned me about it years ago.

I think @Dr_C makes a good point about direct organ donation. Jews believe that the body should go back to the earth, that it is part of the cycle of life. That is why they don’t embalm, and the casket should easily degrade. But, I think there is an argument for being able to give life by donating an organ. Some Rabbis are ok with certain organ donation.

Cremation would be a big no no in Judaism, because you are not able to nourish the earth. Moreover, since the holocaust, some Jews feel even more strongly about cremation, because the burning of Jewish bodies was done commonly by the Nazi’s.

@JLeslie huh? Oh you’re asking why I wouldn’t donate my organs and then be cremated? I don’t know. I was under the impression that they don’t release the body after donation, but maybe I’m completely wrong. Also, I’m really afraid of going into a coma and then being taken off of life support prematurely. I don’t know, something about it doesn’t sit right with me. I’m not really very healthy, so I don’t think my organs would be acceptable. :/

@Beta_Orionis I’m pretty sure the family gets the body once they get the parts they need. Unless it’s donated for science…then I imagine they keep it.

@casheroo that seems reasonable. I just never thought very hard about it.

I’m not sure, I was under the impression you could still get the rest of the body minus the organs donated back, but like I said I am not sure.

My grandmother was very upset one of her brothers donated his body to science, because she felt she never was able to lay him to rest, and that she was not able to go through the proper steps for her own mourning.

If I could directly donate my body to someone who is researching the problems I have physically I would do it, or at least those organs that are affected. I don’t know of a process in which you can do this?

@Beta_Orionis you do get the body back once the organs have been harvested so you can go about any burial rites you deem appropriate.

One more thing… i wouldn’t worry about the coma thing and being taken off life support prematurely for organ harvesting… #1 the patient has to be “brain dead” (which of course needs to be confirmed) and you don’t get taken off life support.. they keep the body alive as long as possible.. if the heart stopped pumping blood tissue death would soon follow and the organs would be useless.

They don’t just take people off life-support if they haven’t been conscious for a while.. we have many many many ways of confirming when a patient is “brain dead”.

@Dr_C At the same time, I’m not completely convinced that “brain death” is a reliable definition of death. For example, it’s been shown that practitioners of Reiki, when acting on a subject from afar, cause the target’s brainwaves to be quiet, when in fact they are conscious and functioning as usual.

The ability to diminish brain activity… Specifically any kind of brainwave is not the same as the complete abscence of brain activity and/or prolongued oxygen deprivation… A “quiet brain” cannot simulate brain death.

@Dr_C Good to know!