The ongoing prattlings of a lifelong geek and his random luck with love, work, children and rediscovering himself.

2010-07-29

Man Wants To Donate Organs While Alive

My father died in February of 2009. The way he died was starvation. Before anyone thinks that something dumb happened, it was planned and "normal" for someone who has multiple symptoms of Lou Gherig's Disease, a tiny spot of cancer on his lung, advanced diabetes and perhaps more. He was not able to feed himself or be fed, and as it was well known and established that he did not want machines powering an otherwise useless body, he literally starved to death. I was there at the time of death.

Now, I read that a man who has Lou Gherig's wants to donate organs (heart, lungs, etc) before they deteriorate so that they can benefit someone, instead of letting them go bad in his body. In essence, he would be committing suicide. My emotional response on this teetered back and forth. He's trying to help others. He's giving up on life because "it's over anyway". Ultimately, I happen to believe (as with other non-related topics) that people should be able to make this decision as it is "their life and body". But that little touch of "what if something improved later" or "what if a cure for his problems came later" still bugs me. My religious upbringing yells "this is wrong" of course. (sigh)

LINK: Man Wants to Donate Organs Before He Dies

No comments:

Post a Comment