Are you an organ donor?

**Toaster** · 24th February 2007, 07:00

Originally Posted by Donor

I'm on the fence...

Is that like being in the closet with a door each way????!!!!

**Donor** · 24th February 2007, 07:31

Originally Posted by Quatermile

Sorry about that.....

But also not what I meant

I know - and not what I had in mind as a reply either... lol

But this is a thread that belongs on topic for a while longer methinks...

**Donor** · 24th February 2007, 07:33

Originally Posted by Toaster

Is that like being in the closet with a door each way????!!!!

Foolish man!

...that'd be a gate...

**apteryx_haasti** · 24th February 2007, 08:10

Originally Posted by Gremlin

Very important to do this with your relatives... they can stop the donation going ahead, despite you listing yourself as an organ donor on your license.

Have had that box checked since the beginning....

What Gremlin said - at the moment in NZ relatives can over-ride your wishes and stop donations. MAke sure your family know that you want to donate and that you'd appreciate it if they would respect your wish.

The Bills that are currently before the Select Committee "aim to prevent anyone overturning the wishes of a registered organ donor.

It would create an "opt on" register where people would be able to nominate organs they want to donate."

I like the sloan of the pro-donation campaigners "Live life then give life"

My family knows the score - I'm a donor

**apteryx_haasti** · 24th February 2007, 08:13

PS - here's the current situation:

Originally Posted by Story on Stuff

Australia and New Zealand Organ Donation Registry figures show just 25 people donated organs in New Zealand last year, a record low. The figure put the donor rate at six donors per million people – poor by international standards.

At present, about 400 people are waiting for a kidney transplant and another 29 for heart, lung, liver or pancreas/ kidney transplants. A Land Transport New Zealand spokesman said about 46 per cent of people were listed as donors on their driver's licences – the equivalent of almost 1.4 million car licence holders.

But the driver licence register is considered only an indication of people's wishes and does not represent legal consent. Because of this, the Government plans to establish a national organ and tissue donor register and has introduced the Human Tissue Bill, also before the committee. The bill aims to balance the wishes of a dead person with family needs.

**The Pastor** · 24th February 2007, 08:59

There are enough orgens in china, they just kill off prisoners to order, if they need them fresh for international orders, they send the prisoner on a holiday......

Im not currently one, no reason, just never been asked if I wanted to be or not. I'd be scared of crashing getting munted and then I wake up on a table looking at my liver.....

**MSTRS:Me** · 24th February 2007, 09:11

Originally Posted by renegade master

Im not currently one, no reason, just never been asked if I wanted to be or not.

If you hold a NZ driving license, then you were asked...

**Jonny Rotten** · 24th February 2007, 09:21

Originally Posted by The Stranger

I see you have already started the process with your brain.

and after last night...... my liver

**Smorg** · 24th February 2007, 09:32

Ive always been a bit worried that there may be the possibility that you can still feel things and be aware of your surroundings after you have karked it. But Im a donor now still FREAKS ME OUT though!

**McJim** · 24th February 2007, 09:51

Closest I got to being an organ donor was when I gave my sister a keyboard (musical) it had a church organ setting.

Yep - people can have my bits when I'm dead - as long as they don't mind a liver that has probably filtered huge quantities of alcohol, a set of lungs that have belonged to a smoker for the past 28 years and a heart that has been exposed to deep fried food for nearly 4 decades.

In fact they'll prolly live longer without my organs.

**Coyote** · 24th February 2007, 09:55

Originally Posted by Donor

In all seriousness, they can bloody well take what they want.

Wouldn't have guessed you were a Donor

Originally Posted by apteryx_haasti

PS - here's the current situation:

Shiiiit, only 25?! How many deaths from car accidents are there? Like 400-500 a year?

I wonder how many people were suposedly donors, but there close relations decided they didn't want their beloved's body cut up to help people

**Joni** · 24th February 2007, 10:03

Related/the same conversation... :spudwhat:

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=15049

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=8346

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=1159

**Ixion** · 24th February 2007, 10:38

Originally Posted by Coyote

Shiiiit, only 25?! How many deaths from car accidents are there? Like 400-500 a year?

I wonder how many people were suposedly donors, but there close relations decided they didn't want their beloved's body cut up to help people

I believe that there are technical type problems here too, though. My (very limited - correction invited) understanding is that there is a very short amount of time available for transplantation of the organs , with the clock starting to tick from the moment when a strong effective pulse ceases . Note that at that point the donor may not yet be dead!

So a person who dies at the roadside will not be suitable for "harvesting" - and often someone who dies in intensive care will not be either because their organs will have been damaged by the process that led to their death.Unfortunately most people who die in hospital after a road crash die of general organ failure. And the two most "saleable" organs, the kidney and heart are the organs that fail.

And even if someone dies under "suitable" circumstances the hospital must know of a target recipient "ready and waiting" .

And permission must be obtained from grieving relatives at a time of very high emotional stress. Even people who might be willing, at a less fraught time, to allow a deceased love one's organs to be used , will often respond with a "oh no no - please not now" when asked at the height of their grief. It is actually easier emotionally to give permission for ones own organs to be harvested , than it is to give permission to harvest those of someone you love who has just tragically died. And of course it is not a time when medical staff want to be "pushy" .

Incidentally, I understand that the hospital staff do not have access to the deceased wishes stated on the driver licence ie the doctors don't know that you ticked yes.

**Ixion** · 24th February 2007, 10:42

Originally Posted by Joni

Related/the same conversation... :spudwhat:

Well, the most recent is 18 months old. And it is a topic of sufficient social value to justify reviewing every so often. Many more recent members will not have seen those older threads.

**Joni** · 24th February 2007, 10:46

Originally Posted by Ixion

Well, the most recent is 18 months old. And it is a topic of sufficient social value to justify reviewing every so often. Many more recent members will not have seen those older threads.

Fair enough Les... I would think posting in the last thread and "reviving" it would suffice...