Writer's Block: R.I.P
Oct. 28th, 2011 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dionysius[Error: unknown template qotd]
Well, this question is very apt after Tuesday's memorial service! I would like any organs possible to be donated first of all - I'm already a donor, but of course with my health, I don't know what they'd be able to use in the end. The rest of me is free to go to science - after all, others making the same decision is what has allowed me to benefit so much from my degree and will continue to allow the next generation of medics, surgeons, anatomists etc. to train. How could I say no? I know some people find it a bit weird, but seriously, what a waste if your body just decays under earth or is cremated and it destroys organs that could save another life. I understand people not wanting to donate their full bodies to science, but frankly, I feel that people who don't donate organs are selfish: if you would accept a donor organ, you should be morally obliged to donate them yourself. In the end, it doesn't make a difference to me whether I'm buried or cremated "whole" or not, and I'm sure whatever repulsion my family would feel regarding it would be erased and more upon receiving the news that I had saved lives or given such a gift to students exactly like I am now. I believe organ donation should be opt-out instead of opt-in - for those who aren't really bothered, it's better to have them donate than not, and anyone who is really repulsed can still opt out. Win-win and it's disgusting that very recently it was rejected here. There is a massive shortage of organs and unfortunately many people who WOULD donate but don't get round to signing up/don't know how to.
After all this, I'd prefer cremation over burial, partly for cost reasons, partly because the earth is full enough, and finally because I'm just not comforted by the idea of burial at all.
Well, this question is very apt after Tuesday's memorial service! I would like any organs possible to be donated first of all - I'm already a donor, but of course with my health, I don't know what they'd be able to use in the end. The rest of me is free to go to science - after all, others making the same decision is what has allowed me to benefit so much from my degree and will continue to allow the next generation of medics, surgeons, anatomists etc. to train. How could I say no? I know some people find it a bit weird, but seriously, what a waste if your body just decays under earth or is cremated and it destroys organs that could save another life. I understand people not wanting to donate their full bodies to science, but frankly, I feel that people who don't donate organs are selfish: if you would accept a donor organ, you should be morally obliged to donate them yourself. In the end, it doesn't make a difference to me whether I'm buried or cremated "whole" or not, and I'm sure whatever repulsion my family would feel regarding it would be erased and more upon receiving the news that I had saved lives or given such a gift to students exactly like I am now. I believe organ donation should be opt-out instead of opt-in - for those who aren't really bothered, it's better to have them donate than not, and anyone who is really repulsed can still opt out. Win-win and it's disgusting that very recently it was rejected here. There is a massive shortage of organs and unfortunately many people who WOULD donate but don't get round to signing up/don't know how to.
After all this, I'd prefer cremation over burial, partly for cost reasons, partly because the earth is full enough, and finally because I'm just not comforted by the idea of burial at all.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-28 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 06:49 am (UTC)I'm glad you're an organ donor. It's such an important thing to. I try to respect other people's choices but I feel strongly on this. I agree that it should be opt out.
I've thought about donating my body to science. I just don't know. It would be a good thing to do. My friend has MS and she's donating her brain (with all its leisions) for research which I think is pretty awesome.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 07:59 pm (UTC)Donating to science is a huge step further and I appreciate if people don't want to do that. But it's so important to train students and also for researchers to work on - so it benefits live patients and future generations. :) Your friend is really awesome for donating her brain! If it helps someone with MS like her then it must be so worth it.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 08:06 pm (UTC)It's not so much the dying or being dead that bothers me, it's being NOTHING. The fact that the world will just go on and nothing's changed and I'll be in oblivion. I write a lot about that in my novel actually: the oblivion and nothingness of death. I think that's the scariest part. It's weird to look at my body and think students like me will be poking at it and cutting it up, but when I think of how I react with the cadavers, there's nothing personal in it really. It doesn't feel as strongly like a person as people who haven't dissected might think.
Yeah, people just don't understand that if they ever need a donor organ, that donor will have been in a similar position to them - healthy, young perhaps, not wanting to face their own mortality. But they decided to sign up anyway and I really do believe if you would take an organ, you should donate. You just don't know if you're going to be the one who needs it or not.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-04 04:42 pm (UTC)