How many people here are organ donors?
Anyone received a donated organ?

On Thursday, I received a very small part of some kind person who decided to check the Organ Donor box at the hospital (or dmv). One lightly used cornea. It's sad that they no longer need it, but I'm very grateful to have it. (I'm really looking forward to reading 2p2 in stereo) The donor gained nothing by the act, yet made it possible for my life to be improved dramatically.

There are over 100k people on waiting lists in the USA. Even if everyone in the US chose to be a donor, not everyone could be helped. But it couldn't hurt?

Should potential donors be given some consideration while alive? Or maybe something for their heirs?
Other countries have an opt out policy. Should the U.S.?

Are there other situations that offer similar benefits to some one else with no cost to the giver?

Opt out policy would dramatically increase the number of available organs.

Yes we should pay people for organs. Slippery slope morons notwithstanding.

I have a cousin who donated one of her kidneys to my other cousin (her sister). Pretty touching story, as even though the recipient has pretty severe diabetes, she's gotten an extra twenty years of life because of the donation. We actually just had a nice family celebration for the event last year.

Personally, I don't give a **** what happens to my body after I die. Take all the parts you need.

Nut,
A cornea seems like an odd one. What condition caused you to need a new eyeball?

In the stats class I teach we looked at policies different states have with regards to organ donors. The opt-out program is easily the best way to get more donors.

Keratoconus
It's like if the windshield of your car kept bending until it became like looking through a kaleidoscope. Eventually you need a new pane of glass. Fortunately, only one eye has gotten bad enough to need surgery.

Did you have to use an eye patch in the interim? That would be trippy.

I'm currently using a protective cover. It's taped on clear plastic, not the pirate type. I'll be using for at least a couple weeks, so maybe I should invest in a more stylish one?

Oh, I meant before the transplant. One eye being a kaleidoscope and one being normal sounds really hard to deal with.

It's amazing what the brain can adjust to. It could incorporate the limited light/dark with the other eyes vision to create a coherent, though mostly mono, vision. The worst was low light. I haven't driven at night for years. Lived that way for a long time.
It wasn't until last year that I was able to get insurance so that I could get the transplant. (Thanks Obama!)

Correct, I'm sure you looked at the same data I'm thinking of but basically they compared two very similar countries in terms of demographics, GDP, views on transplantation etc like maybe Austria and Switzerland where the only difference was opt-in vs. opt-out and the rate of donation in the opt-in countries was like 20%(comparable to US) and the rate of donation in the opt-out country was like 90%

Crazy, and interesting. Glad you are doing better now.

That's a great story, Nut. Must be so cool to see right again.

I always joke with my brother that he needs to take care of that future kidney of mine.

I'm hoping. It's going to take up to a year to fully heal. The eye is still semi-closed, and has a biological band-aid on the eye itself. Not sure where my vision will end up, but at least it will be correctable with glasses or contacts.

Hopefully science will create artificial organs, or make growing organs possible before long. It really is pretty amazing to think about.

The one thing I wish I had thought of is for my Dr to take a picture of my eye with the cornea removed. I would have liked to see that. Could have made a nice avatar.

I've read a couple really good novels about that subject lately -- Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Atwood's Oryx and Crake.

Not that you should be straining you eyeballs right now, though.

3D printing is also a pretty innovative potential solution to the problem, there have been a few 3d printed tracheas that have been actually placed into real humans, results were initially promising but from what I understand they havent done well in the long term and the project is on hold.

Another fascinating angle is that at Indiana Univ. they have bred essentially "knockout" pigs that grow kidneys without antibodies so that they are basically compatible with any human being. They are right on the verge of human trials I think. This would be an absolutely groundbreaking development if this is able to be done regularly.

I've been audiobook only for awhile. Much more than a graphic novel and it was too hard on the one eye.

If people have questions about my eyeballs, I have no problem answering them.

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One thing that I have been thinking about: what is the moral obligation of the recipient?
I don't mean about being a donor (but it would be pretty f'd up to not be a donor after receiving an organ). Or to not abuse the 2nd chance. (no drinking if you got a liver). Obviously, I'm not going to skip watching porn.
What about less obviously?

I am a donor and hope if there is anything left of me once I go that it all gets used, or cremated and scattered in places with a good view.

My father was a recipient. He actually went through two kidney transplants. The first kidney was rejected but the 2nd one worked well.

As a family member of a recipient I can say it is an incredible gift. Before the transplant my father had to go three times a week to a dialysis center to get hooked up and filtered. It kept him alive but it was easy to see the toll it had on his body as well. It was also a ball and chain that made it difficult to go anywhere. Life with a working kidney was much better and it wasn't even close.

I "heard about" some issue with this where they'll sometimes start ripping your organs out before you're dead enough to not be feeling pain (or at least it's under debate as to whether the person is still semi-conscious), or something like that. I feel like a moron writing this obviously without having looked into it.

its a great thing, but what i dont like is that everyone connected with the procedure gets paid except the person giving the organ.

I was just yesterday on the internets searching for a long lost childhood friend who had randomly popped into my head. Since he's got a pretty common name and I don't know cities he's lived in, etc., I figured I might search for his former step-father, who used to be a relatively famous pro football player and was quite the abusive prick.

I found an article about his (the football player's) death a few years back. Of course it praised his civil rights activism, his stubbornness, his contrariness, and his under-chronicled career. Turns out at the end he was living in a nursing home. He made his peace with the Lord and they called his great-nephew to take care of the formalities once he'd passed on. Half an hour later, the nephew gets there and starts to pray over the body, or whatever, when the mother****er wakes up! The nephew got to sit down with him and chit chat over a glass of lemonade before the old fart actually did kick the bucket.

Baltimore,
I've recall stories about things like that. Organs have a short life once the body is dead, so are doctors tempted to jump the gun? Probably.

I wouldn't support a stipend to the next of kin.
Outright money for organ, not so much. Vice did a story about organ trade in Bangladesh

The organ trade in Bangladesh is BECAUSE we dont pay donors. Thats an argument in favor of it not in opposition to it.

And the donation process is extremely well-regulated, no one is taking out any organs (in the US) when someone can still feel pain. There are essentially two routes for organ donation. Donation after brain death (the "normal" or most common way that organs are donated) and donation after cardiac death (DCD donation).

For donation after brain death, you might be a little surprised to find out that there isnt really any nationally or globally accepted standard of just exactly what brain death is. I personally dont like the phrase "brain death" and would replace it with "death" since its the only kind of death that really matters. Each state has their own regulations, a few states actually have no stated policies, but essentially, independent verification of brain death by 2 physicians, one of whom should be a neurologist or neurosurgeon, and none of whom may be part of the transplant or procurement teams. Usually confirmatory tests such as cerebral blood flow tests or angiography are used.

DCD donation is a little bit trickier. This is the situation where a patient is NOT brain dead, but they have a critical and irreversible injury such that if they were taken off support they would rapidly go into cardiac arrest and die. The reason this is problematic is that, in contrast to brain death, death isnt declared until cardiac arrest and cessation of vitals, but once the donor goes into cardiac arrest, the organs are not being perfused, so timing is essential. The usual way this works is that the patient is brought down to the operating room area on full support, and then a clock is started when the support is withdrawn. The patient must arrest and pass away within 90 minutes, and as soon as that happens they are taken immediately to the OR and the organs are procured. That 90 minutes isnt spent perfusing all their organs to maximal levels, so obviously its "better" if they pass away earlier in that time frame. A physician who is NOT part of the transplant team is responsible for the patient during this time period, and may not give any medications designed to hasten their death. They MAY give pain medication, sedation, things like that but explicitly only if its for the benefit of the donor, NOT the organs.