No Stupid Questions

In my experience, some of the people that I have met that aren't organ donors are afraid that the hospitals and doctors will do less to save you if you're in an accident so that they can use all of your organs to "save" many more people. It's dumb, but I've met a scary amount of folks who believe that.

In some US states, it’s opt out when you get ID or drivers license. I think that’s a better way to go about it

I know someone who works in the organ donation industry, and that's what's made me question wanting to be an organ donor more than anything. The dilemma for me boils down to 1. You need to not be dead dead for your organs to be harvested 2. We are not really that good at determining what's good enough dead vs definitely alive but seems dead when time is critical, doctors are busy, and there's people actively pressuring for the transplant to happen.

I think few people would object to it if they were told it was an option, but the default is "no" in most countries and many people just don't think to opt in.

I don’t even have an organ. Hell I don’t even know how to play one!

Some people such as myself can neither be blood nor organ donors because their bodies are undesirable.

Examples: Cancer, Leukemia, HIV, TB, Leiden V Factor, etc.

People with such issues are often incompatible donors.

My only problem with organ donation in the US is the recipient gets a huge bill, including $86,000 for the actual liver. The donors family gets nothing.

So if someone gets into an accident and eventually dies, and is a donor, the family gets a massive bill, and the hospital makes $1M from the recipient.

If you sit down and give the topic all due fair consideration, yes, there’s only one rational conclusion. However a lot of people just don’t want to think about dying, period, and will switch off on anything that makes them do so. I’m sure there are also misinformed people who think their organs can be freely stolen even if they’re not dead yet if they check that box.

I’m not justifying these people, mind you. I’m just describing how it happens. There is no good reason, but there are reasons.

People are being a bit cynical in the comments, so I’ll share my experience which is a bit different.

I felt an irrational fear when I checked the box to become an organ donor a few years ago.

I rationally knew it was the right thing to do, but it felt bad nonetheless. Nowadays I just no longer think about it.

So my guess is that many people are scared of it, but no one wants to admit that.

My dad was an organ donor when his brain died. The next day after the 24 hour period to confirm brain death, I was sitting with my brother and stepmother waiting to have the plug pulled when a lady walked into the room and introduced herself "as part of my father's care team." I don't remember much of what she said because I was focused on waiting for the end and she wasn't wearing scrubs so I didn't really care what she had to say, but she left and after another couple hours I learned that she was from the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) for our State, my dad was a donor, and they weren't pulling the plug until they took him to a different hospital for organ harvesting.

The rest of that day was a blur but my stepmom was pissed, the next morning my dad's body was in the same room, that lady was apparently fired, there was a new guy and gal as well as their boss to talk with us, they told us they weren't going away. Eventually they agreed to perform the harvesting surgery there so we could walk to the OR with him. We were asked if we wanted a "hero walk" where the nurses and doctors take time away from actually helping people to clap for a corpse being walked down the hall, which was the dumbest fucking thing I'd ever heard of.

I wasn't there when my dad's brain died in the middle of the night. I thought I'd be there as his body functions shut down over the course of a half hour, but instead the last I saw of him before he was cremated was his still breathing corpse being pushed down a hallway. I got a text that his heart had stopped a couple hours later.

Across North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin there are only something like 350 organ donations a year because the body needs to be either very fresh and preserved or brain dead to keep the organs intact for harvesting. If you are a donor, it is very unlikely that your organs will actually be donated, but if they are, it can add a whole extra layer of shitty to an already awful situation for the family. Obviously this is just my experience and it's probably unusual for people to be fired so it was probably an especially bad one, but you asked and this is my answer to your question. I'm still not sure if I'm going to be a donor next time I renew my license. I don't think I will until I add a stipulation to my will to allow my family to override it if they feel a need to.

I am an organ donor myself but there are a few different reasons people are not

1. superstition and religious beliefs. Some religions are against it.

2. a belief that doctors won't try as hard to save them if they can use their organs to save more people

Religion

I know some people fear that they could end up in the hospital with something not life-threatening but the doctors would harvest their organs and kill them.

It's not a rational fear, but people do be thinking that sometimes.

I've got a family member who has heard tell of folks having their organs harvested while still alive, and that's enough for them to say no. Helps them sleep at night, so fair enough. Your peace of mind has value.

Also I think maybe the catholics are against it? It would fit their whole schtik. Can't day I care enough about what they think to find out though.

There are religions that forbid it. A lot of people just don’t care either.

I'm a donor (woe betide whoever gets anything from me) but I totally understand not being OK with it. This guy says we won't need them, but that's unknowable. Maybe there's a bunch of donors at the gate not being let in until the rest of them gets there. But if ever you have a right to claim ownership over anything, it's your body. Your organs aren't collective property others have a right to. You fuck off, these are my organs is a totally reasonable position.

Conspiracy theories and actual corruption.

People are afraid doctors will kill them to get the organs. Doctors don't want to deal with those accusations so will not take organs without clear consent from family. Some places are actually opt-out, doctors have enough legal protection and public trust is high enough that doctors will take organs without waiting for consent from family. In other places...

I remember some case from Poland where as a part of corruption case doctor was accused of killing a patient to harvest his organs. The patient was allegedly in a coma and the doctor disconnected him from life support to get the organs. This was clearly a witch hunt, all the other doctors got scared and transplantations in the entire country went down as a result.

So in many places people simply don't trust the doctors and will not give consent. There's also a lot of superstition and religious thinking involved.

I mean.....some organs you do not want. Like my colon. You do NOT want my colon.

Logic says my liver SHOULD be dead by now, but somehow I've had no issues. Sooooooo, maybe give it to an alcoholic? Apperently booze has no impact on my liver. How it survived my 20s, I'll never know.

And my brain??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, sorry. I was just imagining what it would be like if a silverback gorilla decided it wanted to tickle you. Because what are you gonna do? Get tickled by a gorilla, that's what! Oh, also, my brain is weird. Probably don't want anyone being given that.

Does anyone remember the time the US military blew up a Grandma?

I don't give a fuck. Take 'em when I go, if you want. I doubt they'll be any good, but recycling's 'in' these days, so ...

It wasn't that long ago that doctors had to go grave robbing at night, risking their careers and freedom, just to be able to get access to the human cadavers needed to advance medical science. Christianity has always had a real problem with people adding or removing things from the human body, even dead bodies, and the effects of that are still echoing all around the western world in many many ways.

As a person who nearly died waiting on a new set of lungs the answers in here are absolutely wild and disappointing for the most part

To me everyone should be

Have you ever pondered about the logical implications of this way of thinking?

Have you ever pondered about who has the "easiest" access to organs? It's gazillionaires like Bryan Johnson who dream of "immortality" (Death Herself entered the chat: "LOL"). Needless to say, a humble human being like us in need for an organ is very unlikely to afford it than a gazillionaire does, you probably know it.

So imagine if there were some kind of law requiring everybody's organs to be donated: who do you think would benefit from such a law?

Furthermore, this kind of law would inevitably become a fundamentum for a new law in the lines "every person should give birth yearly" so gazillionaires could get plenty of organs to choose from a broader "genetic pool" (sic). And, suddenly, world would become a dystopian, Matrix-like human farm, harvesteable by a few "powerful", a world where biological human existence got reduced, through the force of the corporations-states joint venture, to being born, raised and indoctrinated by the capitalist system for the legally-enforced purposes of working and reproducing yearly, until, say, the wannabe-god Jeff Bezos in his 300th anniversary demands another liver from the "peasantry" because he took too much whiskey during his last weekend's trip to his Blue Origins LEO Stargate Resort and he needs so badly to be alive next week so he can order another round of "mandated peasantry breeding & layoff programme" at Amazon.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not against organ donation, much to the contrary; I'm well aware there are humans in need for organs and, given I don't really care (or at least I want not to care) about the fate of this biological garment I've been compelled to wear, I'd happily give mine away (if my organs were still functional despite my unhealthy habits)... except, of course, to gazillionaires; unfortunately, I wouldn't be physically around to refuse a rich my organs, best I could do as a disembodied dæmonic entity would be haunting to hell their mansions and resorts.

!nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

It should be opt out, not opt in.

Chronical illnesses. For different reasons, both my wife and I are "unfit" both for organ and blood donations.

I had hep c. Can't be a donar.

You think it's kind of selfish because you're a rational person. The reasons people aren't organ donors are because the thought of surgery makes them squeamish ignoring the fact that you'll be dead and won't feel it, and the other reason is because they think they need to take the organs with them to heaven. It's mostly religious nuts.

I am registered as an organ donor. Recent events and body/organ mismanaging lead me to like to be removed from that pool.

Examples : Someone mom was shoot over in a catapult style to test the strength of a military device, no body was able to be recovered for burial. Not only organs as one think can be used will be harvested, skin and other parts will too. Is all comoditized and the main winners are hospitals and body brokers.yes that's a thing, look it up. I want my family to have closure when that happens not vein part of weird experiments, if I find a way to just hace like the basic organs removed then do the other ceremonies would be much easier to agree.