[Serious Thread] Organ Donation

[BlackCat]

My suggestion would not be to push somebody to the front of the line the instant they sign an organ donation card. If somebody has chosen, for the last 30 years, to not be an organ donor, finds out that he needs a kidney and signs his organ donor card he would be behind the person who's been signed up as an organ donor his entire adult life.

Do you think I'm an idiot ?

I find the idea that you per default is OD and have to say no, the right way. If having saying no and later regret, will mean you have to wait for an obsolete organ.

[notyoueither]

I have no idea why you think that

Making the process automatic, non-personal, efficient...

I'd be concerned that some people involved in emergency care (as one example) might go hay-wire in their evaluations of patients.

Bad head trauma. Ohh, a runner. Nice heart there. Excellent lungs. What sort of life is this veg going to have anyway? ...

[KrazyHorse]

I call ad hominem.

You can call whatever you want, son.

Perhaps I worded it a bit strongly, but I still think there is going to be a tendency.

Your claim that those who need organs make poor donors is not what I take issue with. Think a little more and you might come to it.

[ricketyclik]

There was a Larry Niven (I think) short story where organ donation was mandatory, so prisoners were executed (and their organs harvested) for such offenses as jaywalking.

Definitely a potential cause for concern.

[BlackCat]

There is no logical connection between organ donation in being mandatory for all citizens and convicts being executed to harvest their organs.

Actually quite contrary - making it mandatory will give a surplus, so no need to execute jaywalkers

[ricketyclik]

Your claim that those who need organs make poor donors is not what I take issue with. Think a little more and you might come to it.

I'm afraid you're going to have to spell it out for my poor, illogical brain.

[loinburger]

There is no logical connection between organ donation in being mandatory for all citizens and convicts being executed to harvest their organs.

The wealthy passed laws to extend their lives by harvesting the organs of the less-wealthy. Come to think of it Niven may have been operating on the premise that organ transplants could extend one's life (80-year-old gets a new heart, adds twenty years to his life) as opposed recovering from injury/illness.

[BlackCat]

Making the process automatic, non-personal, efficient...

I'd be concerned that some people involved in emergency care (as one example) might go hay-wire in their evaluations of patients.

Bad head trauma. Ohh, a runner. Nice heart there. Excellent lungs. What sort of life is this veg going to have anyway? ...

Uhmn, why would they do that ? They have no gain in doing such.

[KrazyHorse]

Do you think I'm an idiot ?

I find the idea that you per default is OD and have to say no, the right way. If having saying no and later regret, will mean you have to wait for an obsolete organ.

Did that make sense in the original Danish?

[notyoueither]

Uhmn, why would they do that ? They have no gain in doing such.

Thinking they are doing the greater good.

They are human.

[KrazyHorse]

The wealthy passed laws to extend their lives by harvesting the organs of the less-wealthy. Come to think of it Niven may have been operating on the premise that organ transplants could extend one's life (80-year-old gets a new heart, adds twenty years to his life) as opposed recovering from injury/illness.

I've read (almost?) all the known space stories. My issue was simply that you were expressing a causal connection between all citizens being required to donate organs in the event of their death and the State increasing the use of capital punishment in order to harvest the organs of convicts.

[BlackCat]

Did that make sense in the original Danish?

I know that english is your second language, so you are probably excused. That makes perfect sense both in danish and english

[KrazyHorse]

Making the process automatic, non-personal, efficient...

I'd be concerned that some people involved in emergency care (as one example) might go hay-wire in their evaluations of patients.

Bad head trauma. Ohh, a runner. Nice heart there. Excellent lungs. What sort of life is this veg going to have anyway? ...

How is this different than people putting "organ donor" on their licenses?

Also, this sort of fearmongering is overblown.

[BlackCat]

Thinking they are doing the greater good.

They are human.

Well, that would be a criminal act and that is a police matter

[KrazyHorse]

I'm afraid you're going to have to spell it out for my poor, illogical brain.

Saying that all organ donors would be placed of all non-organ donors does not mean that all organ donors would be treated equally. Those who had been organ donors for longer (scaled to take into account different ages?) would be placed ahead of those who had just become organ donors. Unless you think that people can reliably predict their need for organs decades ahead of time your objection is unsubstantiated. Even a bit of thought would have led you to this as the ideal solution.