Originally posted by Lucid Lunacy
Kinda OT, but what do you feel about cryogenics or other technologies to perserve the body/brain post-death, APC? Selfish?

I think today it's either a great way to waste a whole lot of money or a great way to get rich... depends on which end of the stethoscope you're on.

Originally posted by khunmoon
Medical history from 19th and early 20th century are full of such stories.

That's not very surprising. But you would think with all the advancements stories like this one would be unfathomable in the 21st. It would seem our ignorance knows no bounds.

Originally posted by apc

I think today it's either a great way to waste a whole lot of money or a great way to get rich... depends on which end of the stethoscope you're on.

fair enough...

in the event that the technology developed further and was proven effective, then what would your thoughts be on the matter?

Originally posted by dgtempe
I may have read that people thought to be dead used to be placed in the earth with a bell tied to a toe which would ring outside and the cemetary security would alert the doctor!!!

Then they started EMBALMING which of course, , ensures that you ARE DEAD.

I wonder if there's a way to ask not to be embalmed? I'd take that option.

It's illegal to bury a body which has not been embalmed, for public hygiene reasons apparently.



Stories like this, which do pop up on a regular basis, are exactly why I am not an organ donor. The problem is the hospital waits for you to die, like vultures as another poster said. There have been news stories of hospital staff not administering proper care to increase the output of organs for donations (don't ask me for a source, just remember reading it). On the slight chance that I might wake up again, they're not harvesting my organs like I'm in some Chinese deathmobile for convicts.

I used to work at a hospital and the topic of organ donation came up one day between some nurses and doctors.

One nurse in particular changed my mind about being an organ donor when she described how everything is harvested.

She said it was the grossest thing she had ever seen in all her years of nursing.

She told me what was left after one particular harvesting operation left something that in no way resembled a human being anymore.

She said the doctors don't hesitate either, once a person is pronounced dead.



[edit on 24-3-2008 by Enthralled Fan]

I cannot believe this happened!!!!

Amazing!

Can we get an interview?

I want to ask him some questions:

When you said you don't remember anything after the accident, you also said you remember hearing the doctors declare you dead. At this point did you feel you were in a spirit form?

Could you see while dead?

Did you see the light?

Describe anything you remember in the best detail you can.

So many more.....

ATS we need to recruit this man!

LLoyd45 said it perfectly. They're vultures.

I'm sure there are good doctors out there, but there are many that only steer you down a path that will profit them more. They steer you towards a surgery that will end up putting you in the hospital again, or a transplant that you don't need so that they can sell your organs like the Chinese do, or a medication that addicts you and weakens your body to the point that you're dependent on that medication or you die...

..at which point they can harvest your organs.

It's such a disgrace. It's even worse that people assume doctors are there to help.

Many aren't. Many don't care about you. They're like car salesman, except much more dangerous.

It's this kind of thing that reminds me of the movie "Awake".

Unfortunately that kind of thing happens far too often.

If everyone lived on one simple bit of skepticism, things may get better: The medical establishment is a business - businesses need customers.

Stop blindly accepting what they say.

DO - YOUR - OWN - RESEARCH!

This kid was on Dr. Phil the other day, my Mother was unfortunately watching..

I thought his story was pretty wild too. I'm not an organ donor because I want to go to the grave with what I came into this world with. I'm funny about it. I'd save a family member or loved one, thats it, and only with a kidney, liver, or lung.

Originally posted by Michelle129
I'm an organ donor, blood donor, and on the bone marrow registry. I would hope if I, or any of my children or immediate family ever needed a transplant, that there would be someone there for us...I could give a sh*t less what the doctor makes as long as he was able to save myself or my family members.

Michelle

You think the objection hinges in the money? This is about the perpetuation of the lie. That this has something to do with compassion and charity.

The only charity involved is from the donor to an unknown recipient. I would gladly donate any organ if I knew that their wasn't profiteering involved. By the way, would you still be so magnanimous if you discovered that they killed someone to get the organ for your loved one? Or does that not matter?

My objections are about the fact that, as usual, people allow themselves to be 'shamed' into something by some disingenuous doctor who doesn't give a rats a## about anything other than the money involved. The people in this story are celebrating the recovery of their family member, and rightfully so, but after the happiness glow subsides, someone better consider how many potential survivors were callously snuffed.

If I give my organs for free - I want the recipient to get it for as close to free as humanly possible. The same goes for my blood, platelets, marrow and anything else I might want to 'gift' to someone. I am very nearly shocked at the flippant notion that it's OK for us to 'donate' something so some middleman can get rich selling it to an individual in need.

Originally posted by Michelle129
I'm an organ donor, blood donor, and on the bone marrow registry. I would hope if I, or any of my children or immediate family ever needed a transplant, that there would be someone there for us...I could give a sh*t less what the doctor makes as long as he was able to save myself or my family members.

Michelle

Yeah but why should the rich live and poor die? That would be the moral dilemma here. If I knew this I wouldn't have even been considering donating my organs. Not this horror story but the fact that it's yet another scheme that allows the Rich to progress while the poor fade away. Anyway we all got to die some time...

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott

There are enough individuals who are young and are dying through no fault of their own for me to consider it the right thing to do.

Indeed there are many youngins too.

The demand is there.

I had a brother that needed a kidney donation because his was failing. He was on the list for years, and on dialysis daily, until he finally got the new kidney when he was 10.