Did you all see this one on organ donation in Britain?

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3137928&mesg_id=3137928

Interesting topic with a definite atheist/theist angle.

[Warpy]

1. I'm a recipient of a donated cornea

and no, none of the woo is coming true. I am deeply grateful to the family who donated this person's corneas and possibly other parts so that people like me could have a better chance in life.

I always had to ask the families about donation, and I'd generally point out it was a way for part of the family member to live on and make someone else's life better, or save it completely. My dad was ineligible to donate but I made sure his pacemaker was removed, cleaned and donated.

The problem is a real knowledge gap. People think they're going to be charged, that the body will look mutilated in the casket, or that letting it be destroyed by bacteria is somehow more pious than allowing the various parts to be used to heal. None of this is true.

An opt out program sounds wonderful to me. The ultra superstitious who think they need all their parts at the Resurrection could keep them. The pool of donors would be widened hugely and more people waiting for organs and tissues would receive them.

[Evoman]

2. Damn rights. I agree with you completely.

I'm gonna get my ass flamed for my post in that thread

[YankeyMCC]

6. Nice to hear

We donated my Dad's corneas (among other things, notably some portions of his skin) and it is so nice to hear from a recipient.

And we had an open casket wake and one of the few things the funeral home did well was preparing my Dad's body for viewing, he looked fine.

[moggie]

3. Sure are a lot of selfish whiners on DU

I thought that religion was supposed to promote morality? Keeping your own dead body intact rather than using it to save lives doesn't sound too moral to me. As for evil doctors letting patients die so they can harvest their organs: damn, the fucked up US healthcare system has really warped perceptions. The wonderful doctors and nurses who looked after my dying father (which didn't cost us a penny) are not about to turn into vultures.

[enlightenment]

4. I agree with you, completely.

Clicked into that thread yesterday, thinking I'd find more yeas than nays. Instead it was almost completely opposed - and not just opposed but shriekingly opposed. Paranoid, virulent, and really proof-positive that many people react to the most immediate stimuli rather than spending a single second of their precious time examining a situation.

At the VERY least, you'd think these folks would have noticed the article was talking about the UK.

I'm donating my body to science. If they can use the parts, go for it - if not, make it a crash-test dummy or whatever. I'm not thrilled that it might wind up being used to test weapons, but you can't "opt-out" of post-mortem usages. Cremate the left-over bits and use it for fertilizer.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. I'm surprised, too.

A couple of posters - I'm kind of shocked at one of them - have gotten particularly hysterical.

To me it all comes back to that people are afraid to think about the fact that death is the end.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

13. Perhaps some DUers harbour an ambition

to come back as a zombie. The notion is appealling but even zombies don't need all those organs.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. It's rather intriguing, the lack of reading comprehension

by many DUers. Despite the article being British, mentioning Gordon Brown and the NHS, some DUers are going off on it thinking it's about the US.

[moggie]

9. Don't you know that everything is about the US?

Didn't you see the yank* in the UK forum recently saying that Blair turning Catholic meant that he "has joined the Pope, Bush, and the neocons en masse in the attempt to destroy American democracy"? Our only purposes as a nation are: (1) testbed for future American neocon policies and other evil BFEE anti-American schemes; (2) breeding tomorrow's Islamic fundies to attack America; (3) fucking up Basra for America; (4) Exporting Benny Hill and Monty Python to America.

* I reserve the word "yank" for those who I think fit the "ugly American" stereotype. Who ought to be rare on a liberal/progressive site, I think, but sadly aren't.

[qb]

8. My 7-year-old wants to donate his body to BodyWorlds!

http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/prelude.html

He agreed to donate his organs to needy recipients first... I told him his donation time will probably be in about 90 years :)

[moggie]

10. You have a very cool 7-year-old!

You've done very well there.

[qb]

11. Thanks. I'm proud of him and his 10-year-old sister.

I explained to them what I believe and what people of different religions believe and said they are free to choose their own paths. Both are proud atheists who respect the beliefs of others.

[moggie]

12. I'm so jealous

At the age of 7, I think I mostly believed in Santa, Lego, and Paul McCartney. Maybe I just blossomed later (I no longer believe in Santa).

Isn't it interesting how most atheists raise their kids as freethinkers rather than atheists? No doubt there are some atheists who indoctrinate their kids, but in my experience most of us value intellectual freedom above any particular conclusion about how the world works. This is rather at odds with the way we're often portrayed.

[Evoman]

17. No doubt.

My dad, the atheist, never tried to convince me to be one thing or the other (other than a critical thinker). Maybe that is why we, his children, are all different...I'm a fundie atheist (snicker), my brother is agnostic, and my sister is an atheist, semi-buddhist, with woo woo tendencies.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Suggested questionnair for those making the decision

"Would you like these organs

(a) to rot underground
(b) to be burnt to ashes
(c) to be used to try to save lives?"

Perhaps if they gave that to relatives (no need for a doctor to have to talk to them - just give them an objective piece of paper), and put it like that on driving licence forms etc., we could get the opt-in rates up a bit. But that would be 'emotional blackmail', I suppose. :eyes:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

16. OMG TAHT IS TEH NAZZIS

didn't you know? :shrug:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

15. The policy has been compared to Hitler, the Nazis, and the Khmer Rouge

no, I am not kidding. The idiocy is outstanding.