Organ donation and smoking

1. Why would you encourage doctors to declare your organs viable for donation ? (eg. your drivers license agreement)

Do you really think doctors are going to try 110% to save you if you are donating your organs. Think about it. They have a very big waitlist.

2. Would that doctor pronounce death sooner (to enable organ transfer) than if the patient declared they didn't wanted their organs donated?

I think they might.

3. Why would anyone want organs from someone who had smoked?

Apparently, smokings not so bad when you're getting their organs.

Not absolutely on topic but I wonder if a non-smoker who receives an organ from a smoker takes up smoking or gets withdrawal symptoms or cravings? It's an interesting thought.
Going to see if I can find any info on the subject.

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


I'm not sure but until recently I was an organ donor.

Then I had a bit of a think about it and realized, if you were on that 5% cusp of death, which way would the medics prefer you went knowing you had viable organs.

A bit of an awakening.

edit: 95% someone gets your fully functioning organs

5% you live and keep them yourself

reply to post by ppk55


Decisions are based on the severity of ones injuries.
The first doctors arriving on the scene (say, of a car wreck).....are not looking for your ID. They're trying to save your life regardless of anything.
I think what helps doctors do the 'right' thing opposed to the easiest or any prejudice-based thing (besides their conscious) is the Hippocratic Oath.

Now about donating: Not all donations go into others. Many (if not most) get studied. I'm personally donating my entire body as a cadaver. I'll likely become the "what not to do model"
The medical schools will take any body for research-purposes especially if we're marred, tarred and tattered.

I suppose what I'm trying to say in a nut shell is this ..

Will they try to save you more if they know your organs aren't going anywhere ?

I think yes.

Organs from smokers are donated and used every day they become available.

A full bettery of tests is run on tissue samples and if no cancer is found, even lungs are donated.

I know of only one case so far where a smokers' lungs were donated and the person went on to develop lung cancer.

Usually the lungs heal rather nicely as long as the damage is not far along. You can check with any anti-smoking campaign to see how quickly the lungs can recover to those of a non-smoker.

Lungs from a smoker are A OK with someone needing them that may only have hours or days left. You don't get to choose your organs, you can however, choose how to care for them once you get them.

There are alcoholics that get new livers, then go on to drink themselves to death again. One man actually asked for a second liver due to his drinking, and was denied.

The heart is tested extensively, echocardiograms and other tests are done to assure the heart is in good condition.

This is even done with drug addicts, smokers, prostitutes, and homosexuals. All groups you would possibly consider to be off limits. I have seen known heroin users organs donated and the recipients lived to tell. As long as the tissue tests come back with normal values, the organs are quite viable.

Of course, the final say so is the doctor that is doing the harvesting as to whether or not the organs go out the doors. The recipient physician is made aware of any extenuating circumstances, and may refuse at any time. He makes the best call for his patient at that moment.

Organ donations can only be done on brain dead patients. This means traumas or anyeurisms or strokes. There are certain individuals that fit into a couple of those categories.

Of course mistakes have been made, show me any area of science and medicine where they have not. However, the statistics far outweigh on the beneficial side, the risks are small to none, and your loved one lives on for a time.

When it came to saving the life of a loved one, a child or spouse - would you really try to play, "Beggars can be choosers."?

donating my body to science...fiction.

if they can use anything when i'm done with it, please with my blessing!


i'm a heavy smoker for 45 yrs. my lungs would not be good for a teen but might give someone a couple yrs, unless i die of lung cancer.

the rest? organic insecticide probably.

reply to post by Libertygal


So considering even smokers organs are acceptable, what's to stop some doctors / institutions 'encouraging' patients to die earlier than normal to facilitate organ transfer ? If you didn't agree to organ donation, there would be no incentive for them. Correct?

edit: we can all act as if this isn't the case, but I think we all know deep down it probably is.

The idea that you are possibly given less medical treatment or more is a total fallacy, as I have outlined in my post above, the only injuries that matter are head injuries. Any other traumas has nothing to do with organ donation.

I can tell you *from experience* that all head traumas regardless of the indivdual, regardless of whether or not they have insurance, or smoke, or drink - or any other factors, are all treated with one thing in mind - to save that human beings life. If you think anything else you are horribly mistaken.

During the course of treatment, if the patients reaches brain death, the doctor calls in an Organ Donation Team, a specialized group of people with ZERO ties to the hospital other than the business of dealing with donations. All care is handed over to them once brain death is declared. NO decisions are made *in the field* ie: when the accident just happened.

If a patient reaches brain death prior to reaching the hospital, and all vital organs cease to function the organs are no longer viable.

A brain dead patient must be kept alive on life support systems while matching and multiple tests are done. This can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days. Once the testing is done, procurement takes place, and the pages go out to the recipients to get to the hospital.

One woman I saw refused to allow them to take her husbands heart, because it belonged to her. I cried. For a whole host of reasons.

But people speaking negatively about donation are making a huge mistake in doing so because it is usually based on false and erroneous thinking which has no basis in reality.

I myself have recieved donor bone tissue twice and will again in the very near future, which can be removed after any death, same as the eyes and skin.

Medical science has made leaps and bounds in rejection issues. You used to not be able to donate skin and bone.

Someone said "most organs do not make it anywhere" or something similar. If the organs are being donated, I beg to differ that in brain death, almost all organs donated find a recipient.

And if you plan to donate your body to a medical school as a cadaver, you best do it now, because they will not accept you after death. You cannot "will" your body to science.

I am so very grateful for the gifts that have been given to me, as are all recipients of organ donations. I owe them unspeakable thanks for what their generosties did for me and many many others.

reply to post by ppk55


Because, for one reason, smokers can die from any number of illnesses, and brain death from a stroke is only one of them. Doctors do not fascillitate death, and that is an absurd notion to consider. I have seen doctors weep at the loss of patients. Patients that smoked, and did not. Patients that were obese and that were not.

Brain death in order to recieve organs is not at all as common as you may think. In one year, which was a relatively high year due to cultural issues where I lvie, we broke a record of 21 donations.

The cultural issue of which I speak was a very extreme rise in teen deaths due to road racing and then moved quickly into car surfing, ghost riding, etc.

The total of 21 also included an anyeurism or two, perhaps a hemmorhagic stroke, and some gunshot wounds to the head, along with coumadin types of bleeds.

More often the average would be more closer to 12 per year.

sounds hokey but the TV show, nurse jackie, had a situation where this kid died, young man actually.

long story short, she changed his donor status on his drivers lic

and paved the way to give out his organs.


wow, tv or real life?

Here is an interesting case developing in South Africa which does raise some interesting questions regarding the organ trade:

Netcare is again in the news and this time for all the wrong reasons. The private hospital group, which earned accolades for assisting during the public sector strike, has been exposed for its alleged role in illegal kidney transplants at St Augustine's Hospital in Durban.

The case, which dates back to December 2003 when the police first cracked an international syndicate trading human organs, made headlines this week when charges that were provisionally withdrawn in July 2006 were reinstated. This time those charged also include Netcare and its chief executive, Richard Friedland.

www.busrep.co.za...

They are under investigation and have been charged however the case has not gone to trial, therefore all parties implicated may not be quilty. But it is still quite an interesting case and just shows that there are unethical doctors and hospitals out there - as long as there is a profit to be made from the organ transplant business.

reply to post by Libertygal


So you're saying a guy with $5,000,000 doesn't have any sway in this matter ?

A guy with $5mill who doesn't have any sway in encouraging a doctor or institution in 'facilitating' the slightly earlier than planned demise of a viable organ donor?
Compared say to someone who specifically said they did not want their organs donated in any respect.

edit: let's be honest, even doctors can be persuaded by money.

However if you categorically state you don't want your organs donated, you have a slightly better chance of not falling victim.

Originally posted by ppk55
I suppose what I'm trying to say in a nut shell is this ..

Will they try to save you more if they know your organs aren't going anywhere ?

I think yes.

As long as your bloodtype isnt on some special conspiracy related list of elites needing organs of a special blood type.

Watch out for the opt-out to be introduced replacing the opt-in.
It's already started in Australia.

reply to post by fooks


In real life, it doesn't matter what is on your drivers license. My hospital will not accept that.

It matters if you have a living will or once brain death is declared the next of kin state that you wished to donate your organs.

Many, many people do not check the box on their license, or only do so to get a reduction of the fees. It is NOT binding, and the next of kin always has the right to make the final decision. If and when a person has no next of kin, it is up to a team of physicians, and this is very rare indeed.

At the most, checking the box on the license shows you were perhaps willing, and should give the family/next of kin some food for thought.


here is a short FAQ:

www.lifelinkfound.org...

main website:

www.lifelinkfound.org...


www.lifelinkfound.org...

Fact: Donation is not discussed with a family until all efforts to save a life have failed. Once death has been declared, a family is asked about donating life through organ and/or tissue donation.

To think anything else is fallacy and illogical.

reply to post by ppk55

edit: let's be honest, even doctors can be persuaded by money.

This was not in your original post that I relpied to. The doctors do not get paid for this. That's another fallacy.

Donor families pay no money.

It is a Federal crime to buy or sell organs.

Doctors who treat the patients are in no way involved in the donation process or transplantation process.

Originally posted by Libertygal
or once brain death is declared

This is the bit that worries me.

Would brain death be declared 'that little bit earlier than normal' if there was unconditional agreement to donate the organs? Just a simple question. Compared to someone who specifically and undeniably stated they did NOT want their organs donated.

Originally posted by Libertygal
It is a Federal crime to buy or sell organs.

Oh ok, thread closed.
That's it then people.

reply to post by ppk55

However if you categorically state you don't want your organs donated, you have a slightly better chance of not falling victim.

Wow you really changed that entire post, didn't you?

How do you consider donating organs to another human being falling victim?

Oh wait, you mean because they will cause your brain death rapidly to get your organs?

Already debunked you in that.

And no, money nor status has *anything* to do with your place in donation lists. You cannot buy a place on a list. Rich people die, stars die, famous people die, all before they might get organs they need in due time.

Your fear mongering on this is doing a great disservice to others that may read your thread an buy into this.

I say bollocks, and it is shameful of you to put to question not only the physicians that treat people but the teams that work so tirelessly to assure that donated organs reach people in need.

If you sway one person from being willing to donate that may have considered it, you could possibly jeopardize up to 250 recipients of lifesaving gifts of love. Donation is done out of caring for others, and without those gifts, countless people would suffer or die.

It is obvious you have done zero research on this, and also quite obvious that you have zero faith in the medical community that one day may save YOUR life with the gift of life from someone less fortunate.