organ donation
And not the kind that they play in church, either.
I recently got my New York State driver's license, and I signed up to be an organ donor. I read the fine print before I did, too. Signing up to be an organ donor - in New York state at least - allows whoever to take your entire body for transplant/research purposes. Unless you specify restrictions in the letter they send to you. You can restrict the use of your organs to transplant only, or research only. Or you can restrict what they take to particular organs. To wit: bone and connective tissue, corneas, eyes, heart (for valves), heart with connective tissue, kidneys, liver/iliac vessels (I don't even know what those are), lungs, pancreas (with iliac vessel), skin, small intestine, or veins. (What they take seems kind of random, but I'm not exactly an expert on this. Maybe there are valid reasons why they don't take, say, the stomach, or the larynx, or whatever.)
So I'm looking at this thing debating whether to add restrictions to it. I mean, I signed up for this thing because it seemed like the right thing to do. In the event, I wouldn't be using the parts any more, so why shouldn't someone else be able to if they needed to? It seems selfish not to, and you always hear about how there are never enough organs... But that's transplant. Y'know, there's something a little ooey-gooey about the idea that your liver saved someone's life or something. It makes the feeling of being stripped for parts a little more palatable. But then there's research. And let's face it, the idea of someone having my small intestine under a microscope checking for god-knows-what is a little less ooey-gooey. But...research is necessary too, to learn how to better treat the living. And who knows, I might die under circumstances that are not particularly conducive to using my organs for transplant. (Not to be incredibly morbid or anything.) I mean, I might get hit by a bus and be completely pulped, or I might die in a car crash and get burnt to a crisp. Or hey, I might die of ripe old age and just plain be too broken-down for anyone to really use my organs any more. (Heck, I doubt a lot of people are going to want my eyeballs even if I die tomorrow, they're already so messed up.) And so what, if I have the poor taste or poor luck to die in circumstances like that, I suddenly say, whoops, never mind, sorry, I'm not going to help you out after all? That doesn't seem right. There's things to learn even from really messed-up bodies - if nothing else, they can be practice for MEs in training, I guess. (Or maybe I just watch too much NCIS.) I dunno.
And then there's the conundrum of my whole body just disappearing. I mean I know it happens eventually, there's decomposition and all, or faster if you get cremated, but it's still a weird thought. And I know, like I said, I'm not gonna be around any more, but still. It's weird.
I guess it comes down to what I would want to happen in terms of a funeral or a grave or whatever after I die, and heck, I don't know. I mean, if you go for the traditional casket and whatnot, you could just give permission for them to take all the internal stuff, heart and lungs and kidneys and whatever, but leave the outside stuff. But then they'd have to stuff my body with whatever it is they do that kind of thing with, cotton balls or PVC pipe or whatever, and would that be any less weird? Not hardly. And frankly, being in a casket is a pretty weird thought all by itself. I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about the trappings of my death, y'know? For that matter, my dead body all by itself is a weird thought, the idea of the only tangible sign of me being reduced to a cold lump of meat. Maybe being stripped for parts is to be preferred to hanging around like that. *wry* I am all for recycling.
I dunno. I think I'll just leave it unrestricted for now. None of the alternatives really seems better, and this has the advantage of being right. I'll just save the little sheet of paper in case I actually come to a decision at some point. *wry smile.
I recently got my New York State driver's license, and I signed up to be an organ donor. I read the fine print before I did, too. Signing up to be an organ donor - in New York state at least - allows whoever to take your entire body for transplant/research purposes. Unless you specify restrictions in the letter they send to you. You can restrict the use of your organs to transplant only, or research only. Or you can restrict what they take to particular organs. To wit: bone and connective tissue, corneas, eyes, heart (for valves), heart with connective tissue, kidneys, liver/iliac vessels (I don't even know what those are), lungs, pancreas (with iliac vessel), skin, small intestine, or veins. (What they take seems kind of random, but I'm not exactly an expert on this. Maybe there are valid reasons why they don't take, say, the stomach, or the larynx, or whatever.)
So I'm looking at this thing debating whether to add restrictions to it. I mean, I signed up for this thing because it seemed like the right thing to do. In the event, I wouldn't be using the parts any more, so why shouldn't someone else be able to if they needed to? It seems selfish not to, and you always hear about how there are never enough organs... But that's transplant. Y'know, there's something a little ooey-gooey about the idea that your liver saved someone's life or something. It makes the feeling of being stripped for parts a little more palatable. But then there's research. And let's face it, the idea of someone having my small intestine under a microscope checking for god-knows-what is a little less ooey-gooey. But...research is necessary too, to learn how to better treat the living. And who knows, I might die under circumstances that are not particularly conducive to using my organs for transplant. (Not to be incredibly morbid or anything.) I mean, I might get hit by a bus and be completely pulped, or I might die in a car crash and get burnt to a crisp. Or hey, I might die of ripe old age and just plain be too broken-down for anyone to really use my organs any more. (Heck, I doubt a lot of people are going to want my eyeballs even if I die tomorrow, they're already so messed up.) And so what, if I have the poor taste or poor luck to die in circumstances like that, I suddenly say, whoops, never mind, sorry, I'm not going to help you out after all? That doesn't seem right. There's things to learn even from really messed-up bodies - if nothing else, they can be practice for MEs in training, I guess. (Or maybe I just watch too much NCIS.) I dunno.
And then there's the conundrum of my whole body just disappearing. I mean I know it happens eventually, there's decomposition and all, or faster if you get cremated, but it's still a weird thought. And I know, like I said, I'm not gonna be around any more, but still. It's weird.
I guess it comes down to what I would want to happen in terms of a funeral or a grave or whatever after I die, and heck, I don't know. I mean, if you go for the traditional casket and whatnot, you could just give permission for them to take all the internal stuff, heart and lungs and kidneys and whatever, but leave the outside stuff. But then they'd have to stuff my body with whatever it is they do that kind of thing with, cotton balls or PVC pipe or whatever, and would that be any less weird? Not hardly. And frankly, being in a casket is a pretty weird thought all by itself. I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about the trappings of my death, y'know? For that matter, my dead body all by itself is a weird thought, the idea of the only tangible sign of me being reduced to a cold lump of meat. Maybe being stripped for parts is to be preferred to hanging around like that. *wry* I am all for recycling.
I dunno. I think I'll just leave it unrestricted for now. None of the alternatives really seems better, and this has the advantage of being right. I'll just save the little sheet of paper in case I actually come to a decision at some point. *wry smile.