(no subject)
So, I haven't really talked much about what's in the news lately, because overall I've become less political, but there are a few things on the CBC today that really piss me off.
Organ donation. We've all gotten those little cards when we got our driver's licenses, and some of us signed them and sent them back. I, personally, did not, and that's for reasons I'll elaborate on later. The NDP, with whom I am usually in agreement, decided that on their political agenda, they would push for presumed consent. In a nutshell, this means that if a person doesn't specifically 'opt-out' of organ donation, they can be chopped up and given to who the government sees fit when they die.
You'll have to excuse me for quite liking my organs where they are.
Notwithstanding the logistical nightmare, the NDP's heart is in the right place. They want to save lives. This being said, I have a great many issues with the matter. Personally, I believe a person isn't really dead until the sum of their parts is deceased. That being said, if my liver's walking around in someone else, I'm not really dead, am I? I know, this is a strange position for me, the most non-religious person ever to walk the face of this earth. But personally, I'd prefer to be tossed in a burlap sack and buried so that the plants in the soil can benefit from my nutrients. Forgive me for saying it, but in a world that's horrendously overpopulated as it is, the last thing I want to be doing once I'm taking my final dirt nap is SAVING human lives. The article I read has a word for people like me: "selfish". Whether or not that's true is irrelevant - you can villainize me all you want for my hesitance to play the hero. But this is a double-edged sword, you see - in Australia, where presumed consent is practiced, those who opt-out of organ donation are also placed at the bottom of wait lists by default when they happen to need an organ. That's fine with me, as I can accept the 'do unto others' mentality, but what about those people who are simply forbidden by their religious beliefs to donate organs after death? Do they have less of a right to life than someone who isn't forbidden? It seems a little ridiculous to assume that these people will accept this treatment from the government quietly - it strikes me as odd that the Australians haven't staged some form of uprising.
And why, overall, do we humans fear death so much that we're willing to harvest organs from the bodies of the deceased? My kidneys are in rough shape, for example, being that a quarter of each is dead. That being said, I don't think I could willingly accept an organ from another human being - it's foreign and alien and Frankenstinian, almost. When did we become all right with hacking up the dead bodies of our counterparts and inserting the remnants inside ourselves? How is it that being homosexual or receiving an abortion is viewed as 'unnatural', and yet we're completely all right with organ donation? I think society needs to look at its priorities a little more closely.
For the moment, though, I'm going to let the angry comments pile up in this journal and enjoy my organs right where they are.
Organ donation. We've all gotten those little cards when we got our driver's licenses, and some of us signed them and sent them back. I, personally, did not, and that's for reasons I'll elaborate on later. The NDP, with whom I am usually in agreement, decided that on their political agenda, they would push for presumed consent. In a nutshell, this means that if a person doesn't specifically 'opt-out' of organ donation, they can be chopped up and given to who the government sees fit when they die.
You'll have to excuse me for quite liking my organs where they are.
Notwithstanding the logistical nightmare, the NDP's heart is in the right place. They want to save lives. This being said, I have a great many issues with the matter. Personally, I believe a person isn't really dead until the sum of their parts is deceased. That being said, if my liver's walking around in someone else, I'm not really dead, am I? I know, this is a strange position for me, the most non-religious person ever to walk the face of this earth. But personally, I'd prefer to be tossed in a burlap sack and buried so that the plants in the soil can benefit from my nutrients. Forgive me for saying it, but in a world that's horrendously overpopulated as it is, the last thing I want to be doing once I'm taking my final dirt nap is SAVING human lives. The article I read has a word for people like me: "selfish". Whether or not that's true is irrelevant - you can villainize me all you want for my hesitance to play the hero. But this is a double-edged sword, you see - in Australia, where presumed consent is practiced, those who opt-out of organ donation are also placed at the bottom of wait lists by default when they happen to need an organ. That's fine with me, as I can accept the 'do unto others' mentality, but what about those people who are simply forbidden by their religious beliefs to donate organs after death? Do they have less of a right to life than someone who isn't forbidden? It seems a little ridiculous to assume that these people will accept this treatment from the government quietly - it strikes me as odd that the Australians haven't staged some form of uprising.
And why, overall, do we humans fear death so much that we're willing to harvest organs from the bodies of the deceased? My kidneys are in rough shape, for example, being that a quarter of each is dead. That being said, I don't think I could willingly accept an organ from another human being - it's foreign and alien and Frankenstinian, almost. When did we become all right with hacking up the dead bodies of our counterparts and inserting the remnants inside ourselves? How is it that being homosexual or receiving an abortion is viewed as 'unnatural', and yet we're completely all right with organ donation? I think society needs to look at its priorities a little more closely.
For the moment, though, I'm going to let the angry comments pile up in this journal and enjoy my organs right where they are.