Perhaps you were high on crack when you read my post. I stated that when I die, my loves ones will be donating my organs, as per my request. The important thing is that they know, because they are ultimately the ones who have to consent to it after I die anyway. I don't see how this makes me "selfish" in any way. I just don't want to be looked at as dollars to be made when I'm in a life-threatening medical emergency.


As it happens, finding ANY statistics on the mortality of donors vs non-donors seems impossible. I haven't found any numbers that would support or combat the argument that donors are more likely to die, so at this point the evidence is entirely anecdotal and conjecture. A lack of data does not prove my point wrong, it just makes my point unverifiable. Fortunately for me, this isn't even the main point of my argument, which you seem to have missed entirely.

But the fact that hospitals make money every time a donor dies is just that, a fact. The receiver of a donated organ has to pay the cost of both the harvesting and the transplant. A heart transplant alone costs nearly a million dollars. Hospitals make money on donated organs, none of which the family of the donor ever sees. With a shortage of donors and no shortage of people who need transplants, it is not beyond belief that hospitals would put forth less effort to save someone if they knew they were a donor. In most cases, it is more profitable for a hospital to harvest your organs than it would be for them to save your life. I'm not claiming that this is proof that it is happening, but there's definitely motive, and it is not beyond belief.

If those 3 days are going to help determine whether I can ever function as a human being again, I'm going to have to be selfish. I'm not naive enough to think that I'm going to come back after brain death, but I don't want the plug pulled prematurely just because someone is waiting for my organs. If the fact that I wouldn't kill myself prematurely is selfish, then I guess I'm a selfish asshole. Why don't you just put a bullet in your head? I've read varying statistics, but supposedly an organ donor saves somewhere between 8-50 lives with their organs. You could save 8-50 lives right now by killing yourself. You aren't selfish, are you?




Anyway, you completely missed the main point I was trying to make. I think it is wrong that non-donors are eligible to be saved by donated organs. At the very least, I think it is wrong that donors don't get first dibs. I'm not arguing for or against organ donation so much as I'm arguing against this fact. I simply do not like the idea that a noble few have to "do the right thing" because nobody else will. I'm also for compulsory military service for this very same reason. I think every person should have to serve at least a couple of years of service (I'm not going to elaborate on exceptions, because this is an entirely separate debate.) Unfortunately, this will likely never be a reality.

Do try to keep the flaming minimal. Disagreeing is fine, but you can do so in a civil way. I don't want this debate to degrade into flaming.