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I've often imagined something similar for blood donations. Take a pint, give a pint (if possible). |
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//Take a pint, give a pint (if possible).// |
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the red cross does this where i live. |
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In the first place, you will not likely find many people more open to the idea of being donors than transplant patients. So you're preaching to the choir. |
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Second, the conditions which require a person to receive a transplant are seldom isolated - for example, diabetes may have caused someone's kidneys to fail, but it will also have had a deleterious effect on heart, lungs, corneas, veins, skin, and so forth. |
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Third, the immunosuppressant medications required by the transplant patient can render all that patient's organs unsuitable for transplant. |
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That third item is what the transplant team told my wife when she asked if she should keep the "donor" sticker on her driver's license. It's been a few years back, though; I'll contact the transplant coordinator to see if it's still the case. |
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I won't argue about diabetes, but you'd think the immunosuppressants would come in handy to the next donor. Pre-glued kidney, just peel and stick! Well, sometimes things are more complicated... |
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Maybe organ recipients could instead convince their friends and family to become organ donors. (But surely that, too, is already happening.) |
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//you'd think the immunosuppressants would come in handy to the next donor// - likewise, a kidney which had already been donated should be easier to donate again when the first recipient dies - just cut along the stitches. |
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//Take a pint, give a pint (if possible).// |
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the red cross does this where i live.// |
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Really? The rules in Britain are totally different: |
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You should not give blood if: |
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9: You have received blood or think you may have received blood during the course of any medical treatment or procedure anywhere in the world since 1st January 1980. |
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I just talked with the
kidney transplant
coordinator at the University
of Utah Hospital. She says
that anyone who is, or has
been, on immunosuppressive
drugs would be considered
ineligible for organ donation.
In other words, in the U.S. at
least, this idea is a
non-starter - recipients are
forbidden to donate. |
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[fridge duck] - in the U.S.,
blood donation is permanently
refused ("deferred") for
anyone who, since 1980,
received a transfusion in the
UK because of
risk of CJD. Also deferred are
transfusion patients in
certain African countries,
since 1977 (risk of
difficult-to-detect variants
of HIV) and dura mater (brain
covering) transplant
recipients
regardless of where or when.
(CJD again.) (That's "Mad Cow
Disease" for us rednecks.)
Oddly, other transplants - and
transfusions - only
incur a 12 month deferral,
regardless of
immunosuppressant use. |
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//Really? The rules in Britain are totally different:// |
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I suspect [pygmy] refers to the nice frosty beverage one receives for their donation, not a exchange of blood. |
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//I suspect [pygmy] refers to the nice frosty beverage one receives for their donation, not a exchange of blood.// |
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[sprogga] You need not insult my intelligence. |
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I qualified my response by predicating it with the phrase "where I live". Just because it is true in Britain does not automatically mean it is true in the Philippines. Both my local units of Red Cross and the Department of Health require an exchange of blood. In fact, if you need blood in a hurry and are not able to provide an exchange, they require you to leave a government issued ID with them. The only time you can redeem your ID is after you've donated blood. [my co-worker’s SSS ID was kept by the Red Cross till he was able to replace the blood he “borrowed”]. This donation does not have to come from you specifically; it can be done by a family member or a friend on your behalf. Only Filipinos who have taken residence in Europe since 1990 for at least 6 months are eliminated from the blood donor pool. The Department of Health issued a directive in 2001 making this an elimination criterion. |
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I bunned this idea because it made people give back. The blood exchange rule was instituted because people kept on taking but the donations were next to none. In a country where dengue claims thousands of kids every rainy season, these offices made requisite what they could. |
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I work for a trading company which sells hematology analyzers, reagents and other allied products. I can differentiate plasma from a smoothie. |
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And…. It’s PYGGY, not PYGMY. |
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While I support the encouragement of organ donation (and have carried a card myself for going on 40 years), I'm not sure about the mandatory aspect of this concept. Where there's an obligation, there must be enforcement; who administers the enforcement, and how? Can the original donor absolve the recipient of his obligation to donate? (If not, why not? Whose organ was it anyway?) If I carried a 'refusal to donate' card, would I be refused a transplant? Even from a willing donor?
Incidentally, the only country in the world which does not have a shortage of human kidneys for transplant is also the only one which has a legal market for the sale of human kidneys from living donors. |
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I won't get into the ethical / philosophical / legal / medical dialogue. Others better versed and probably more completely aware of the issues than I are already hashing it nicely. |
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That said, bun. I've been giving blood ever since college (do NOT immediately leap up and run to first class afterward! You will miss stuff that's going to be on the test) and I think I've passed a gallon and a half or so. The blood banks here keep track: each time you give covers you for a year; if you need blood during that time, the blood is free. I'm covered for a great many years, and have been donating for other family members too. |
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I agree with the sentiment behind this
but, even apart from the medical issues,
how much difference would this make? |
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What proportion of people are
transplant recipients? I'm guessing it's
maybe a percent of all people. And
what proportion of people are organ
donors? I'm guessing it's more than 10
percent. So, you're going to increase
organ donorship from 10% to 10.9%, all
other things being equal. |
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Just out of curiosity: my understanding
is that it doesn't really matter whether
or not you carry a donor card - doctors
can still ask your next of kin about
using your organs. Is this correct?
Does carrying a donor card make a big
difference? |
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//Does carrying a donor card make a big difference?// |
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Absolutely none, at least not in the UK. Next of kin can be asked anyway, *and* have to agree before any bits are salvaged.
This idea gets a [-] because I don't like the idea of pushing someone into being a donor just because they've had the misfortune to require a donor themselves. |
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My heart is kinda special, yes. It was handed from my great grand father to my grandfather, from him to my father and then onto me, so yes, this heart has been in the family for generations ;)
[Edit] And don't even get me started on my left kidney... |
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[JTP] - that anno makes me sad. I've heard similar, I wonder what the situation is here in Australia? |
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I donate blood, and have put into all relevant documentation that I wish to donate my organs (and whatever else they find useful). Hell, burn my corpse and save a few kilo's of coal, I don't care. |
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|'d hate to think that anyone would have any right to deny these wishes. What a sad place we live in sometimes. |
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