Can you give me some info on being a organ donor?

Question

i'm going to get my permit soon and i was kind of thinking about becoming an organ donor, i just don't know enough to seriously do it yet.

i've heard a lot of negatives and positives.. so a little bit of info on it would be great.

Answer 1

Nothing difficult about it. You're dead. You can either choose to take your organs with you to rot six feet under, or you can elect to save somebody else's life. They don't call it "the gift of life" for nothing!

Answer 2

I'm not sure about organ donation myself, though here in California the little indication on my drivers' license says that I am a donor.  It is a highly personal decision, and one that you can only make after a lot of thought.

My reason for being an organ donor is simple.  If I die, it will be, as the priest said at my Dad's funeral, holding an empty walnut shell:  "Our lives are like this shell.  The body we see here is only the shell.  The nut has departed."  I am, in my heart and soul, not my body, but inhabit my body for a time.  Once my body and my soul part ways, then the body will do one of two things.  In the traditional case, it will be buried or cremated, in which case "the ashes return unto the dust whence they came, and the Spirit returns unto God who gave it."  In the organ donor case, many parts of my donated body can help many people.  What's left after that can be buried or cremated, and I believe that what remains after the donated parts are taken is not diminished in the eyes of my Creator.

You do not say where you live, and I gather you are at the beginning of your driving career, making you as I once was; a teen in urgent desire to have transportational independence.  That being the case, keep in mind that it might just be that the people who give drivers licenses are the ones who give the means of many people's ultimate death.  Car accidents are a leading cause of death well through life, and as such the Department of Motor Vehicles, by whatever name, seems the appropriate place to register donorship preferences.  Seems a little macabre to me, but then I'm just an old fogey who's opinion matters little in the vast scheme of things.

You might start looking for some information at:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organ-d...

for some reasons to become an organ donor.  

Another site, via the government, is:

http://www.organdonor.gov/donor/index.ht...

The case for organ donation is pretty much the norm.  I think the information on the net and in the general societal public is very biased toward organ donation.  To get a slightly different view, I used the search string "Case Against organ donation" and Google came up with some arguments against.  You might want to read some of those results while considering.

Talk with clergy, teachers, and your parents and others that you love and who love you.  Make a careful, considered decision.  Find peace with it, whichever way you decide.

Take good care of You.  You are the only You in existence, you know, and no one will ever be as good a You as You are Yourself.

Rick/

Answer 3

Organ donation is a great opportunity to help others after we die.  When you choose to become an organ donor, it means that at the time of your death, certain tissues/organs will be used to help others.  There are many, many people who are waiting for organ transplants, and everyday people die while waiting for a new heart, lungs, kidneys, etc.  You can donate your corneas to help a blind person regain their sight.  

If you choose to become an organ donor, be sure to tell your family about your wishes . . . they will be asked to consent to organ donation, even if you have a donor designation on your license.

There are many myths and misconceptions regarding organ donation.  Check out www.organdonor.gov for more information.

Save a life - be an organ donor!