Ok, I know that organ donation has been discussed here more than once, but I couldn't find anything that addressed my particular question/issue........so here goes.
In this year's presidential election, many of the exit polls showed that people voted based on their "family/moral values." It seems they (not me!) voted for Bush because they felt he stood for those values, especially in regards to gay marriage, abortion, etc. I was very distraught after the election because I hear these people talking but I don't see these people taking moral action! Organ donation is just one of the areas that angers me.
How can the majority of this country stand on such moral high-ground and then show such PATHETIC organ donation numbers? People are dying because they can't get an organ when there are plenty available, but they get buried with the patient! How can you proclaim to be such a good person with such high moral values when you aren't even willing to donate your or your family's organs in the event of their death? I really don't see that as being a whole lot less than murder.
I'm not even a nurse yet, so I'm not right in the middle of this yet, but I do dread it! Anyway, this is just something that disturbs me deeply and I wanted to get your take on it, especially those of you, if any, that are not willing to donate. I'd like an explanation!
Yes hun, I am afraid that there will always be someone watching what you are doing as a nurse...there are many rules that you will have to follow it looks like to me that you are not a rule follower and therefore may need to re-evaluate your choosen career....or else you will be in trouble
Yes hun, I am afraid that there will always be someone watching what you are doing as a nurse...there are many rules that you will have to follow it looks like to me that you are not a rule follower and therefore may need to re-evaluate your choosen career....or else you will be in trouble
Excuse me "hun", I will be as good of a nurse as any of you and better than most. If you cannot differentiate between wanting to live my life as I choose and following the "rules" of being a nurse maybe you also cannot differentiate between giving a med the Dr orders and one you feel would be better. I will become an excellent nurse because I choose to do so. QED ps I follow all rules and laws, that does not mean I agree with them though.
Just out of curiosity...is the recipient of a transplanted organ eligible to donate an organ themself? Like say, someone has a heart transplant. Something goes wrong on down the road. Are the kidneys, liver, lungs, corneas, skins, etc, etc eligible for donation?
I work in a tranplant unit (heart, lung, heart/lung). I've never heard of a recipient donating upon their death. I suppose they could? I don't know about the life-long immunosuppressants, and other drugs and what those do to the eligibility of donating. I also can't remember ever seeing a fresh post-op transplant who didn't make it, donate. I suppose it's because in this case it's not a brain death.
So hypothectically and by your standards, who donates for me as the recipient of an organ if I'm unable to follow through with donating myself?
I didn't literally mean that people would all have to donate or they couldn't receive, I meant that people would have to be willing to donate if they were elligible. I sort of answered this when tweety asked about people who have diseases that make them inelligible. Obviously the vast majority of people who die can't donate.
So, someone who wants to receive a donation is also supposed to be willing to donate but can't . . . that is interesting. How does that work with the requirement to get a donation you have to be willing to donate?
Complicated ... . makes me even more sure that donation needs to be "blind".
steph
I didn't think it was complicated. As long as you put your name on the potential organ donor list, you could get an organ donation. Whether you are actually ever elligible to donate or not isn't the point. Of course, I haven't worked out all the bugs in my ideal hypothetical world yet :)
NUMERO UNO: "As for the mandatory donation I doubt it will happen. If it did well then so be it as I said before not enough people donate."
NUMERO DOS:". ..the goverment last time I checked could pretty much tell US as citizens of the United States what we needed to be doing at any given time. There is the constitution and all of that but when are all of those rules and regulations actually followed? "
I do not wish for a three-time loser alcoholic to get my liver. If you make the donation process friendlier and more in accordance with my values then perhaps I would consider it. I am aware of the arguments that it has to be perfect match blah-blah blah. In the end, I am asked to place blind faith in a system that I do not have much faith in any way. This is a selfish attitude but how much more personal can you get than the organs that I require to live.
The only thing I know for certain Steph is that in my ideal hypothetical world, chocolate would make me lose weight:)
I'd have to choose mexican food would help me lose weight .. .but we are changing the subject. :)
Maybe I'll join CCU NRS in drinking .. . there is a bottle of wine in the pantry that looks pretty good and I drink seldom enough that I'm sure my liver is still good to go for donation. :) (just to keep us on task here).
Don't make someone else pay for what you want. You want to get all bashed up? Pay the hospital bill yourself. Keep good insurance if you want to keep riding that donorcycle, because it's not fair to others to wind up in the ER and do it on someone else's dime.
What a stretch. What happens to me in my car has nothing to do with you. I suppose you think the government has the right to tell me to wear a helmet when I ride my motorcycle?
I totally disagree. As the wife of a police officer, I know first hand that a car can be used as a deadly weapon...not unlike a knife or a gun. My husband was hit in his leg by a vehicle as a suspect was attempting to get away from him. My husband ended up having knee surgery and now has chronic knee pain.
I'm sure the suspect in that incident probly thought the way you do....that no one, let alone the gov't, should be able to tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing. Think again. That incident affected both my husband and myself.
What you do in your car CAN affect the lives of other people.
Most of the MVA trauma's we get involve TWO cars...not ONE.
By the "logic" I am reading from a lot of postings it is ok for the govt., or you for that matter, to tell me to wear a seat belt and a motorcycle helmet because your insurance might go up? What else? Can I eat a Big Mac, smoke, go hunting, go scuba diving, jump from an airplane (with a parachute), go camping and use a knife, build a fire in my fireplace, take a drink or three? Where does it end? It doesn't. Do I sound a little paranoid of our government? If so then good, because I am in the company of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. Unless I infringe on your direct safety or your right to pursuit of happiness you have no right to tell me what to do. And unless you want to march in a parade for tort reform don't mention high insurance premiums to me. Some of you people are so naive it is frightening.
The last line is a bit disrespectful and closes the line to a meaningful discussion IMO.
Obviously, no one is going to convince you otherwise because over a lifetime of living your life you've intelligently come to those conclusions.
But I think it's a bit naive that in some things the government is going to allow you the freedom to do what you want to do. For instance, I believe it's perfectly acceptable to commit you to a mental institution if you are trying to jump out of an airplane without a parachute. Also, if there is a high cost to society for your freedoms (i.e. high insurance costs for the rest of us, and community hospital bills for the head injured), drug related crime, etc. then we have to look at that, and make demands on what you do and don't do. Just an opinion, and please don't call me naive. I'm a 45 year old, well read, educated, and have seen and done a lot in my life.
A little paranoia is a good thing. As a sexual minority it's only been this past year that what I do in the privacy of my own home has become "legal". So when the government crosses the line it is up to us to speak up and fight. But so far, that's the good thing about America isn't it? Good old Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson set the stage.
To you I say Rock On! (Just be a little gentler with those of us who don't see eye to eye on every issue, and tame the self-righteous anger. It gets you no where.)
SarasLPN
39 Posts
Yes hun, I am afraid that there will always be someone watching what you are doing as a nurse...there are many rules that you will have to follow it looks like to me that you are not a rule follower and therefore may need to re-evaluate your choosen career....or else you will be in trouble