AMSTERDAM, May 29—A 37-year-old woman suffering from an inoperable brain tumor wants to donate a kidney before she dies and will choose the recipient from among three contestants on Dutch national television, a TV network said Tuesday, claiming it wants to highlight a crisis in organ donations. <a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/29/AR2007052902105.html”> More…</a>

I think it’s sick.

The principle of organ donation is that you don’t get to choose who gets your organs. A donor board sifts through the applicants and picks those who’ll get most use. And these people are doctors.

It’s just not right.  :down:

I think its a dumb idea for a show but I do think you should be able to give your organs to whoever you want. If you want to give them to a winner on a game show, so be it.

Organs should go to whoever gets the most use out of them, not who you want them to go to. Soldiers serving in Northern Ireland used to insist that their organs couldn’t go to Irish people or Catholics or similar demographics based on their experiences.

So that guy’s lung doesn’t go to a 25 year old mother with an excellent medical history. That’s why it’s not allowed in the UK for the NHS to accept organs with strings attatched. Dying people have no capacity to decide who their organs go to.

Ever seen Tony Hancocks’ “Blood Donor” sketch? He gives blood and keeps calling the hospital to make sure it goes to someone he approves of. In the course of this obsession he winds up seriously lacerating himself while making dinner and gets taken to the hospital where, due to his rare blood type, he winds up getting his own blood.

I know how it traditionally gets done. I just think it should be okay for you to decide who gets your organs. They are yours, you should be able to choose.

Dying people have no capacity to decide who their organs go to.

That’s kind of a bold statement isn’t it?

Other than living donations (kidneys), I would think you have very little control over who an organ goes to.  However, in certain cases where a relative or other prematched person was in need you might be able to arrange beforehand, assuming there was time, to have them receive the organ.  In other words, if you’re going in to have a brain tumor removed, in the event you don’t survive the operation you might be able to have your heart go to your father who was in late-stage heart failure, assuming you weren’t already on chemo.  I suppose it’s something you’d have to discuss with the doctors and harvesters, but if there was truly a need then it would probably be acceptable, though it might vary from doctor to doctor.  Otherwise you can just threaten to have your family refuse to allow your organs to be donated upon death.  I’m not sure how it works other places, but here the family can override a donar card because the harvesters are staggeringly sensitive on this issue and almost universally defer to the families in such cases.

Slender Loris - 30 May 2007 04:40 PM

I know how traditionally get done. I just think it should be okay for you to decide who gets your organs. They are yours, you should be able to choose.

Dying people have no capacity to decide who their organs go to.

That’s kind of a bold statement isn’t it?

It’s all subjective. Anyone who was dying could be called incompetent to make any decision.

I’m opposed to leaving organs with strings attatched. People who will get better use out of them should. And what would it matter anyway? You’re dead. It’s not like you’re going to want them back.

Like any medical decision, I think it’s best left in the hands of doctors. They know who’ll get the most mileage out of a kidney. What if the person you gave your organ to, no matter how much you liked them, was a drunkard? Or a junkie? They’re high risk. And due to sentimentality, you give them an organ. They abuse it, and wreck it. And all the while a policeman or firefighter needs one and is on the list waiting for it.

The only fair way to have an organ donor system is to make it totally anonymous.

Not joining the show the three are going to die 100% sure. Now at least they all have 33,333333% chance.

Renquist - 30 May 2007 04:52 PM

You’re dead. It’s not like you’re going to want them back.

True that…

Slender Loris - 30 May 2007 04:57 PM

Renquist - 30 May 2007 04:52 PM

You’re dead. It’s not like you’re going to want them back.

True that…

Even if you do, communicating this wish may be difficult 😜

[quote author=“Beasjt

Renquist - 30 May 2007 05:00 PM

Slender Loris - 30 May 2007 04:57 PM

Renquist - 30 May 2007 04:52 PM

You’re dead. It’s not like you’re going to want them back.

True that…

Even if you do, communicating this wish may be difficult 😜

Fact: The Ouija Board was made to please corpses who had donated their organs and are now unhappy.

Go ahead, look it up…