Organ transplant debate.

[c172]

So, in 2006, I befriended a young woman with cystic fibrosis, a lung disease. This required her to get a transplant. She is an artist on deviantART, and I commissioned artwork from her.

We got to be friends over the next year and a half, until a falling out. She and I lived in the same state, about 100 miles apart. She was the one that showed me what CF is, and made me aware of organ transplant in general.

I am now an organ donor, FWIW. And I still am attached to CF as a charity cause.

So, today, I was reading a FB page about a young woman in TN that has CF. She is 17, and just switched CF clinics, from Vandy to ET Children's. She is a very religious Christian, and always figures it's God's desire for her to keep "fighting".

Today or yesterday, she was informed by a doctor that her lung function plummeted from 53% to 27% between her admission to ETCH and her ending ties with Vanderbilt. She was told had to make a decision to either go on the transplant list, get a G-tube (for feeding), or die. She chose today to get a G-tube and try to put on enough weight to not be a candidate for transplant, but either way death could still come at any time.

She feels like when it's her time to go, She'll go and when she does, she wants to die with the organs God gave her.

I'mnot even sure why I'm writing about this, but the decision floored me in a way. It's just so...final. And in her case, faith-driven, which kind of caused some unease in my stomach. Granted, she seems very worn out from the fight against CF. And new organs will only last so long. But I think that was the first I had heard about "dying with the organs God gave" us. People like that are not looking at the idea that s/he may still have a lot to give people here on earth.

And, if she's consistent with her decision not to have a lung tx, it seems like she'll also not be a donor after her death, which I find very selfish.

I don't know this person at all, but I just found her outlook kind of...well...interesting?

Not even sure where I'm going with this. Are you all donors? Is there a compelling atheist reason not to?

If this is in the wrong section, mods, please do what you need to.

ETA: her fb. https://www.facebook.com/kennataylor13

[Simon Moon]

So, in 2006, I befriended a young woman with cystic fibrosis, a lung disease. This required her to get a transplant. She is an artist on deviantART, and I commissioned artwork from her.

We got to be friends over the next year and a half, until a falling out. She and I lived in the same state, about 100 miles apart. She was the one that showed me what CF is, and made me aware of organ transplant in general.

I am now an organ donor, FWIW. And I still am attached to CF as a charity cause.

So, today, I was reading a FB page about a young woman in TN that has CF. She is 17, and just switched CF clinics, from Vandy to ET Children's. She is a very religious Christian, and always figures it's God's desire for her to keep "fighting".

Today or yesterday, she was informed by a doctor that her lung function plummeted from 53% to 27% between her admission to ETCH and her ending ties with Vanderbilt. She was told had to make a decision to either go on the transplant list, get a G-tube (for feeding), or die. She chose today to get a G-tube and try to put on enough weight to not be a candidate for transplant, but either way death could still come at any time.

She feels like when it's her time to go, She'll go and when she does, she wants to die with the organs God gave her.

I'mnot even sure why I'm writing about this, but the decision floored me in a way. It's just so...final. And in her case, faith-driven, which kind of caused some unease in my stomach. Granted, she seems very worn out from the fight against CF. And new organs will only last so long. But I think that was the first I had heard about "dying with the organs God gave" us. People like that are not looking at the idea that s/he may still have a lot to give people here on earth.

And, if she's consistent with her decision not to have a lung tx, it seems like she'll also not be a donor after her death, which I find very selfish.

I don't know this person at all, but I just found her outlook kind of...well...interesting?

Not even sure where I'm going with this. Are you all donors? Is there a compelling atheist reason not to?

If this is in the wrong section, mods, please do what you need to.

How does she know that it isn't God's will to have advanced medical science and talented doctors prolong her life?

And people wonder why self delusion is dangerous.

What if she was making this decision about her 12 year old daughter instead of herself?

[Jackalope]

As I see it, you bring up two only tangentially related issues of personal choice.

(1) Do I want to undergo organ transplant to extend my life? Or, put in another way "What medical procedures am I willing to go to prolong my life?

(2) What are the ethics surrounding whether or not one ought to be an organ donor?

They're both intensely personal issues - and from my perspective, they are choices that we all ought to be free to make. I'm an organ donor, but I would not deem it ethical to force someone to do so.

In addressing issue (1), while some may find her reasoning flawed, it is still her choice to make regardless. I have an advance directive that instructs my representative to withhold consent to certain procedures should I become incapable of indicating consent on my own. My reasons for doing so are irrelevant - they are mine and mine alone, as is the choice. That mine have to do with quality of life issues, and hers spiritual beliefs seems to me a non-issue.

She wants to die on her own terms. She should be allowed to.

[Elskidor]

I feel bad for her reasoning, because it is delusional but it is her choice. I am a donor. I doubt I have a ton of healthy ones to donate, but if I don't need 'em I don't see why I should keep them, and don't quite understand why anyone would willingly reject them unless they just wanted to die. The god thing is just..wow. She's too young to be thinking like that, and if she fought a few years more then she might have an eye opener and convert into someone that no longer believes in the god she did when she was a kid. Oh well.

[Chad32]

I've never held much value in my body after I'm done with it. I'm a donor. Let someone use what they can when I die, and get rid of the rest in the cheapest way possible.

I've never really talked about organ donations much, and I haven't heard of people wanting to keep the organs god gave them. Personally I think it would be a shame to be buried with parts that could be used to help others. I'd never say kill me for my organs, but when I'm god and done you can take what you want. Heart, bone marrow, kidneys, lungs, skin, liver, whatever science can preserve and use to help people with. I'm all for it. Take what you want, and use the rest for compost.

[Mr Greene]

On the point of Donation, Wales is currently changing legislation to presume consent upon death. This is something I'm deeply uncomfortable with - the state should not assume ownership of people, we aren't slaves and prompts me to consider withholding donation on principle.

[Zen Badger]

Her choice, I wouldn't make the same one.
But I respect her right to make this one.

[Little lunch]

I'm an organ donor. I'm giving them everything.
Even if my organs are past helping anyone, I can still be chopped up by doctors for practice.
:-)
What's equally important in my opinion is being a blood donor.
As far as I know, stocks are always low, everywhere.

[c172]

That's true! Seems like they're always advertising a need for blood products. Plus, all the time on those ER documenaries, it seems like you hear about pts. going through huge amounts of blood for a surgery or an accident, etc.

I have medical issues that complicate my giving blood products, but when I am deceased, I would be honored to have my body used, first for organ harvesting, then for academic use.

God's a bit of a kook if He doesn't want Kenna (the girl in the link) to stick around. He doesn't need her back "home".

[Chad32]

On the point of Donation, Wales is currently changing legislation to presume consent upon death. This is something I'm deeply uncomfortable with - the state should not assume ownership of people, we aren't slaves and prompts me to consider withholding donation on principle.

You aren't a person after you die. You're an object. Granted, an object that should belong to your family first and foremost, but an object nonetheless.