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ORIGINAL: slavejali
I don't know how I feel about organ donation and issues surrounding prolonging life anymore. I think I'm quite conflicted about it.

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ORIGINAL: slavejali

I don't know how I feel about organ donation and issues surrounding prolonging life anymore. I think I'm quite conflicted about it.

My late husband was diabetic and that was one of the biggest reasons he couldnt cope with the infection in his lungs that finally killed him. During the process of his battle with this tropical infection ( a 2 year process), he died, had to go on life support, for a week I sat by his bed not eating or sleeping, just praying for him to survive and not leave me. He did wake up, and did come off life support...but what to? Major lung surgery which left him with a drainage bag hanging out of what was left of his lung, constant pain from neuropathy, ulcers that wouldnt heal, protien eating his muscles, inability to walk, vomiting every day, sky rocketing blood pressure, kidney failure which ended up with dialysis, blindness which was the final straw that broke his will to live. I will never forget things like, collapsing from exhaustion and falling asleep to wake up to him sitting in a chair with bull-ants eating his feet, blood pouring out from their bites and he wasnt even aware it was happening, or rocking him in my arms as he was crying from the pain when his kidneys were failing, begging to die....or just the feeling of being totally out of control in my ability to do anything but pallative care.

If there was some way that could have prevented this would I have welcomed it? God yes. If an organ transplant was an option for him, would we have taken it? Fuck yes. Do I often think about that last year and wonder if I should have just let him go when he was originally on life support? Yes......................

He was a special man, I couldnt bare to think of life without him, I honored his spirit, loved who he was beyond a decapacitated body...but to prolong his life for reasons of my selfishness not to want to let him go? What is quality of life?

I sometimes think about all the effort that goes into prolonging the life of depressed suicidal people...I have to ask "Why?" If they want to die let them. I see old people like vegatbles in nursing homes just sitting in a chair day in and day out..and I wonder whats the point? I think we are breeding a weakened society due to a lot of our medical so called advancements. Keep the body alive, keep the body alive.... i just dont see its importance so much anymore.

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ORIGINAL: Proprietrix

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ORIGINAL: becca333
When I'm done with all my bits, anyone who needs them is welcome to them. I like the idea that I can help other people after my death, that I can touch their lives that way.
I think the government should assume that everyone is an organ donor unless they have specifically ticked a box that they WON'T donate.

I have a problem with these stances.
It’s certainly fine by me that people’s bodies aren’t "up for grabs" once they die, and I think we should all have to grant permission rather than have assumed consent about what happens to our bodies after death.

I personally do not put on my driver’s license that I’m an organ donor. My religion would have it that I do not donate certain body parts. By checking off that I am an organ donor, I cannot specify which parts of my body are available and which are not. I have a friend who practices a religion that prohibits organ donation altogether. And yet another who practices a religion in which the body is to be treated in a certain manner for a certain amount of time. I believe to infringe on one’s spiritual beliefs about their passage would be the ultimate display of disrespect and selfishness.

If people choose to donate their organs, then I encourage them to do so. I encourage them to make their choices known. Be that putting it on their license, writing a document, passing the word to kin and friends, etc… But I don’t make a judgment about whether or not they should or should not do so. It is absolutely their choice. And I vehemently disagree with any stance that takes that very important choice away from them.

Edited because I can't spell.