Organ transplant debate.
May 8, 2014 at 6:24 pm
(This post was last modified: May 8, 2014 at 7:35 pm by 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
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
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
