The Glade 4.0

It doesn't have to be for everybody. That's the best part of allowing it. You'd then have the freedom to sell you organ or call those people crazy and never do it. I don't know, under the right conditions, I could see selling a kidney. But not much else for me.

I guess that's people's problem with most things. People believe they know better than the people they're dictating to how they should be able to run their own lives.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Probably not so much while you were alive, but certainly leaving it to your realatives as part of your estate.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Kidney transplants are the exception when it comes to selling organs, because one can sell a kidney and still remain healthy. It doesn't work so well with any other organ.

Except for the one's it does work well with...

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

There are a few other organs it works for. I know you can give part of your liver away. Bone marrow, while not an organ, can be donated as well. There are actually quite a few things we could give to other people.

Sure, though I'm already a donor. Still, if your father died and his estate sold his organs, and gave you $50,000, what would you do with that money?

That would be... weird.

"Hey, man, where'd you get the car?"
"Sold my dad's heart."

It cost me ~$50 for the kit to take the test to be on the marrow donor list. I'm not interested in selling my marrow, but I'd like to not have to pay to donate it. They need to find a way to fix that.

Only because it's not currently the norm.

"Hey man, where'd you get the horse?"
"Sold my dad's castle."

Would be just as weird 500 years ago.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It was free for me. Who did you do it through?

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Tell me about it. I see it everyday at work. Everyone thinks they know better how the other should work. The big problem comes when you need to do the work in shared spaces.

It's because humans have a hard time ceding control, especially those who thrive on control. Control = power and it can be intoxicating.

That would be pretty weird now.

Damnit. /sigh

I can't remember who it was through. I thought it was through the main national donor program.

Maybe it was a scam. I'm probably being cloned right now. Hate that.

20 years ago this would have been true. There were transplant boards which ranked the 'most worthy' to get transplants just like you said. Also, a person with a 'self induced illness' such as liver failure from alcoholic cirrhosis would never get a liver transplant. And people with illnesses that would reoccur in the transplanted organ, such as the infection Hepatitis C, or liver cancer, would not be transplanted.

Let us now fast forward to the land of political correctness. People get transplants based on how sick they are. The sickest gets the organ, even if they are so sick they are not likely to survive the operation. They get it even if they are unwilling or unable to take the medicine to prevent rejection. They get it even if as soon as they can get access to their recreational drug of choice they will start using again (they only have to say once they they will stop. ). They will get it even if performing the transplant will not lengthen their life because the underlying disease will kill them. (Think about what happens when a person with active cancer or infection is given immunosuppressive drugs. The cancer and infection run wild.)

My opinion is that many organ transplants are a waste of limited money and resources. Just because we CAN do something does not mean we SHOULD do something.

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Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!

Unfortunately, I think this can be applied to a lot of things in modern health care.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Sounds like they should get a brain transplant as well.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRNNNNN

Yeah, you can donate part of your liver, but it's a huge hit to your quality of life. I mean technically you could also donate a lung and survive, but that's even worse. I doubt people would sign on to donate anything but a kidney to a total stranger even for millions of dollars. Bone marrow is also not analogous to whole organ donations because the donated bone marrow can be stored for a long period of time. It's not like a heart, lung, or liver where it must be transplanted within 24 hours or it's useless.



This "political correctness" came out of some severe abuses of early transplant committees. In biomedical ethics we learned about a certain hospital that only let people of the same religion as the hospital's get time on their new dialysis machine, for example.

Public hospital, or private?

You know I honestly don't remember if it was public or private, but I would guess private. Do public hospitals have religious affiliations? It was pretty obtrusive though, you had to be seen in the local church or prove weekly attendance at another one or they'd take you off dialysis. (which was a death sentence, back then)

You do know that the liver regenerates right?

http://pennyfoolish.blogspot.com/2006/1 ... organ.html

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

It takes literally decades for a lobe of your liver to regenerate. You have to completely quit drinking, for one thing. There is also a substantial list of foods you have to avoid because their metabolism can monopolize crucial liver enzymes that you now have far less of. You also can't take a long list of drugs, this includes a lot of painkillers like Vicodin, which depending on the individual can be really crippling.

Like I said, you can do it, but it really hurts your quality of life.

I am not sure where you get your information from...

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