When I first signed up to write this post, I had stories to tell. Specific stories about how tragedy in one family lead to a new dawn for another. How tearful prayers on one side were answered with great blessings, while the courageous actions on another made them possible. How congregations and communities were changed by an unknown family’s gift of life. So many terrifyingly beautiful stories of love.
And … I can’t share them. In between the date I signed up, and the date I started writing, my hospital constructed a policy that forbids me from sharing these stories. I’ve struggled with how to write this post. Honor my employer, and scrub away the personal voice? Or honor this community, and share the urgency I feel for this issue? In the end, I’ve tried to walk a middle path. I have a lot of the structure of the issue here. Please help me fill in the details with your input and personal stories.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, there are approximately 110,586 people listed for organ donation. On average, 75 people a day receive an organ transplant. And about 18 people die each day, waiting. While science may provide a supply some day in the future, and we haven’t descended to the point of cloning and cultivating like in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, the need far outstrips the supply.
The list of transplantable organs includes: liver, kidney, pancreas, heart, lung, and intestines. In most cases, the donor has suffered brain or cardiac death. However, with livers, kidneys, lungs, pancreases and intestines, it is also possible to perform living donor transplants, where only a portion of the organ is donated, and the healthy donor is able to live an unfettered life.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has very little information about organ donation on the official website. In fact, there are more links for people wanting to donate pipe organs to meeting houses, than there are for people looking for answers to life-or-death questions. The most pertinent link is to an Ensign article from February 1988. In this article, Cecil O. Samuelson, Jr., regional representative and physician, who is not speaking in an official church capacity, gave a very cautious endorsement. He also noted that, “organ transplantation does not affect one’s resurrection,” pointing to the promise of Alma 40:23, that “all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.” From the discussion on Jana’s Donor post, it would seem that many in the Exponent II Blog community agree.
Incidentally, I did see this statement on the US Department of Health and Human Services website, also echoed on the UNOS website:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes the donation of organs and tissues is a selfless act that often results in great benefit to individuals with medical conditions. The decision to will or donate one’s own body organs or tissue for medical purposes, or the decision to authorize the transplant of organs to tissue from a deceased family member is made by the individual or the deceased member’s family. The decision to receive a donated organ should be made after receiving competent medical counsel and confirmation through prayer.
I’ve seen both sides. I’ve seen parents, overwhelmed with grief, reach past their current tragedy and give the gift of a healthy tomorrow to another. I’ve cared for their children, held the parents as they cried, and shared in their mourning.
I’ve also seen sick children made well through these gifts. I’ve seen them wake from their surgeries, and helped them struggle back to a healthier life. I’ve helped these parents navigate their new found happiness and responsibilities.
How do you feel about organ donation? Would you do it for a family member or friend? Would you be willing to donate your organs to a stranger if you were brain dead? Please share how you came to this decision. Have you talked with your family about your views, and do they understand or agree with your wishes?
I used to think that Mormons didn’t believe in organ donation because of what my parents told me- resurrection etc. But, as I’ve looked further into church policy, it hasn’t seemed to forbid it, so I think it is a VERY worthwhile and charitable act. I now have the indication with my driver’s licence that I am an organ donor. I would do it for a loved one and I would definitely donate to a stranger if I were brain dead.
My DL lists me as an organ donor although I wonder if a young person would really want my aging organs. I’ve been told that the age of a cornea doesn’t matter. Maybe that’s true of a few other organs.
Amy: I also didn’t understand the disconnect between believing in a perfect resurrection, and turning away from organ donation because of fear of incomplete resurrection. I wonder if it’s generational.
Course Correction: I don’t think the age of the organ matters as much as the health of the organ. I also know that there are young children dying to get healthier organs than the ones they have. Some organs need to be size specific, like the heart. OTOH, some can be divided up. Lung and liver recipients can receive just a lobe.
I’ve also got the organ donor pink dot on my DL. However, I also have a medical condition that might make my organs unsuitable for transplantation. In this case, I have thought about donating my body for use in medical science. After reading Mary Roach’s _Stiff,_ it seemed like a viable and useful option.
I LOVED Mary Roach’s Stiff, but I had to listen to it in sections (it was my listen in the car book on cd) because sometimes it would just creep me out. I am an organ donor – and I’ve made sure that my family knows I want to be an organ donor, but I’m not sure about donating my body to science. I know I’ll be dead – and that the body doesn’t matter, but there’s just something weird about thinking I could be a cadaver and people can see me naked (yes I know it’s not really me anymore) and the community college might get the already used cadaver from the university – or maybe I’ll be broken up in pieces and sent to different places… or left to decompose in various situations which might help solve crimes (which admittedly is really cool) but it turns out I’m just slightly protective of my body – even though I won’t be in it. Organ donor yes – science donation … no.
I am not opposed to having students dissect my body, especially since I have had the opportunity to do this type of work. Inevitably, there will be those who are not respectful. However, I do think that it is an important facet of health care studies. I already work informally to further the education of medical residents and fellows, and this seems like the logical next step.
Course Correction
It really doesn’t matter about your age. As long as you don’t have any communicable diseases, and or Cancer anyone is able to donate.
I am all for it. It’s not like I’m going to be using them anymore. I’d rather have my body be put to good use as oppose to laying around rotting in a grave.
I’m listed as an organ donor on my driver’s license. I’m a big supporter of organ donation. Once I’m gone, I won’t need them any more, so it makes perfect sense to let someone else use them. To do otherwise strikes me as a senseless waste of life.
My dad wants to be an organ donor, but my mom is opposed to the idea. (I think it’s an emotional issue surrounding the icky factor, not a moral or ethical issue.) As a result, my dad is not listed as an organ donor. I find that tragic. I mean, if my mom doesn’t want to donate her organs, that’s her business, but I don’t like the idea that she’s preventing my dad from donating his. (If I marry, I’ll respect my husband’s wishes regarding his organs, and I expect him to respect mine.)
I’m renewing my Drivers License in a few days, and will make sure that the sticker is on my new one. However, it is important to make sure your next of kin is aware of your wishes, and even better, write it down and have it notarized. Because even though the sticker is nice and pretty, it’s not legally binding. And this way, if you write down your wishes, you can explain exactly what you’re willing to donate, and what you’re not — somehow donating my eyes creeps me out.
That said, I will be a donator. I had a cousin die while waiting for a pediatric heart, and a friend in my ward just received double lungs. It is an amazing selfless gift that keeps on giving.
Thanks to everyone who has chimed in.
When it comes to organ donation, communication is everything. As ohkj noted, if you don’t have a legal document, your surviving family can override your wishes to donate.
Stacer: it’s a good idea to have your wishes recorded. Even when it comes to what you would wish for regarding resuscitation, and definitelt when it comes to your financial assets.
My husband and I are in the process of signing up to donate our bodies to research after we pass away. (my long-term health issues prevent me from giving blood, so I imagine it’s the same with living tissue/organ donation) I have always wanted to be cremated and this is an additional way to make sure that happens. My grandparents before me did this with their local university and while it was weird to call the head of the “limb department” with a death notification, he was extremely kind and appreciative.
I also thought about cremation, before thinking about whole body donation. It’s strange to think that people believe in resurrection, but with limitations. Is it more difficult to resurrect a body if it has been cremated, exploded, had limbs or organs separated?
Tea, I have chronic illnesses which prevent me from giving blood, and I asked them (can’t remember if a blood drive or at a hospital) about organ donation as well since I had always planned on it before getting sick. They told me if I couldn’t give blood, I couldn’t give organs/tissue either.
Awesome post, Dora!
I worked at a doctor’s office years ago– way back then, one of the doctors was telling me that you needed to register as an organ AND tissue donor. I am not sure if that is the case now, but from memory (and I did secretarial work there, so this might not be medically accurate)… tissue such as tendons and blood can be donated as well, if specified. Does anyone know if this is accurate or?? Because if I am brain dead, why not donate all of my blood as well as organs, if possible?
Thanks Spunky!
I haven’t heard about post-brain death blood donation before. I’ll have to look into it.
I’m also not very familiar with tissue donation. I know that corneas, skin, bone and tendons are transplantable. Anyone else have any experience with tissue donation?
I’ve been an organ donor ever since I’ve had a driver’s license–it just seemed to make sense. After all, I won’t be needing those parts after I’m dead (I’m in my mid 30s).
Only after I married my husband did I decide to donate every bit of me to science (if my parts couldn’t be used for transplantation). My husband, a type 1 diabetic of 30 years, is avid about the benefits of medical research–and the necessity of giving his metaphorical pound of flesh to the cause.
I see no more conflict between organ donation and resurrection than I do between burial and resurrection. After all, if you have a traditional burial, your body is just doing to turn to dirt anyway…and then get incorporated into the flowers that grow on your grave and the animals the eat the flowers….Pretty soon pieces of you will be parts of clover and vetch and red wing blackbirds and cows.
Organ transplants were still considered experimental when I was growing up, and the donor option was not available when I got my first driver’s license. I do remember the first time I was asked (on a license renewal) if I wanted to be a donor. The question caught me by surprise and I said no. However, I did some research and serious thinking on it and then changed it to say yes on my license. I talked to my husband and children about it too and I believe they are all designated as donors now as well.
If no one had ever asked, I would likely never have seriously considered it, so I appreciate the ad campaigns and posts like this one that bring it to our attention. It just seems like a sensible thing to do.
Dora, thanks for this post! I became a real advocate of organ donation after working as a chaplain. I think the hardest thing about organ donation is that for the big organs like heart, lungs, and maybe liver is that the death has to fit the criteria you just listed. The death has to be fairly traumatic and fast, which means usually the donor was going about their normal day–fixing a roof and falling off of it, watching tv and having a brain aneurysm.
I think that is why the gift of organ donation is all the more touching. The family has to process what happened, accept it, and be willing to give away those organs (in the state I worked in, it didn’t matter what the DL said. The next of kin gave consent). I don’t know if I’d be able to give away DH’s organs if I hadn’t had time to get educated and think about it.
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