Are you a donor? -

used:) · #31 10-04-2009, 12:28 PM

I'm also sure you don't want worms coursing their way through your already half-decomposed flesh, right? Or do embalming chemicals hold that off?

Bullet Magnet · #32 10-04-2009, 12:37 PM

Not for long. Though worms are not an issue, given that you are enclosed in a wooden box.

Havoc · #33 10-04-2009, 12:41 PM

:

I'm still waiting for the rules to change so that your organs can be donated unless you're on an exemption register.

Politicians are pushing for rules like that all over the world I believe and for some reason people don't think this is a good idea

. If you don't want to be a donor you fill out a form, no questions asked. How hard can it be...

AlexFili · #34 10-04-2009, 12:50 PM

In one sense, it's biased towards people who have sex with men. In another way, it's protecting people. Without stereotyping anyone, I'd assume that there wouldn't be a large number of non-straight people who would be signing up to be a blood donor. With all due respect, the number of straight people still donating probably means that it doesn't change a major amount of blood produced in the long-term.

It's a shame that we can't drag those emos to the blood donor places so that when they 'blood-let', they can give their healthy blood to someone who needs it! (Okay, wishful thinking perhaps).

I'm all for stem cell research. As long as it doesn't turn us all into mutant freaks like in I Am Legend / 28 Days Later / Random Zombie film.

The reason people don't want an "opt-in" scheme is that a lot of people like being in control of their own body, without having to worry about making sure it stays in one piece. There are also the adverse risks which could possibly involve someone dying in an unusual circumstance, only to be revealed later that some mafia boss had scouted him as being the perfect organ donor or something crazy like that... I guess I'm indifferent to it. But I think as you get older, you're more likely to sign up.

***Wil*** · #35 10-04-2009, 01:08 PM

:

In one sense, it's biased towards people who have sex with men. In another way, it's protecting people. Without stereotyping anyone, I'd assume that there wouldn't be a large number of non-straight people who would be signing up to be a blood donor. With all due respect, the number of straight people still donating probably means that it doesn't change a major amount of blood produced in the long-term.

It’s protecting one person every five millennia, by denying them a life saving transfusion. Admittedly blood donations probably won’t increase too dramatically if the National Blood Service starts being sensible, but it’ll still give hundreds more people better life prospects. Is that not worth fighting for?

mitsur · #36 10-04-2009, 02:24 PM

It's easy. If I die, whatever is usuable can be used. Otherwise toss me on a fire and do what you want with the ashes. It's not like I'll give a damn. When I'm on my deathbed, I'll dramatically clutch the neck of my son's shirt, and gasp out, "Use my body to help others!" then my eyes will widen, I will fall back on the bed, gasp for breath, and die.

Then the doctors will descend with their coolers, ice, and scalpels.

Bullet Magnet · #37 10-04-2009, 02:26 PM

Ha! You would be so lucky. They won't find your body for months.

mitsur · #38 10-04-2009, 03:12 PM

It's not as if I'll be particularly attached to it after leaving this physical plane of existance. If I had to choose between forcing my family to spend money on an elaborate burial or on a night on the town, get drunk, and tell stories about me to the waiter/stripper/bartender in a slur, I would choose the later.

Besides, there won't be much to harvest if I die at an old age anyway. I expect I'll die from organ shutdown caused from old age, but if I happen to go out spectacularly, I guess nothing major would be left. That what could be salvageable would be better off feeding a don's pit bull than a particularly ambitious worm that managed to find a crack in my pine box.

Bullet Magnet · #39 10-04-2009, 03:37 PM

I'd bet on spectacularly. And soon.

mitsur · #40 10-04-2009, 03:47 PM

Auto-erotic asphyxiation, I hope. Please give me some dignity in death.

Bullet Magnet · #41 10-04-2009, 03:53 PM

There's no such thing.

***Wil*** · #42 10-04-2009, 03:59 PM

As dignity, as dignity in death, or as auto-erotic asphyxiation?

Bullet Magnet · #43 10-04-2009, 04:08 PM

Dignity in death.

mitsur · #44 10-04-2009, 04:47 PM

It lends a certain mistique and legend to your death. Just look at David Carradine. Now there's something nobody saw coming.

Lolpun

used:) · #45 10-04-2009, 04:52 PM

And to others, a feeling of embarrassment for the person. The guy was in his seventies and was in Thailand working on a movie, despite already having made his name in movie history. What the fuck convinced him to to this in the first place? My guess is that he had already been doing it for sometime and grew over-confident with doing it, but still.

***Nate*** · #46 10-04-2009, 05:04 PM

:

Meanwhile, men who have sex with prostitutes and anyone taking drugs intraveinously can stroll in and they won't be questioned about it.

Are you sure about that? My quick skim of the UK National Blood Service website seems to imply that both of those groups are restricted from giving blood. The anti-MSM rule is strange in that they ban gay men forever, but anyone else who might come under HIV suspicion is banned for only a year. That's what the rule is in Australia; MSM are banned for only a year. Who wants to go with me in January to donate?

As for organ donation, I'm not on the roll but I keep intending to go on it. I ummed and ahhed a while when I first got my driver's license because the Jewish religion puts some restrictions on it - if you die and they cut out your organs, that's fine, but if you're in a coma/braindead they can't harvest your organs until your heart stops naturally, which restricts some donations. In some countries, the forms allow people to be specific in the terms of how they want the donations to happen, but not here unfortunately. In any case, I'm a bit over the religious stuff, so I'm planning on signing up. Although it seems odd to me that I'd be allowed to donate organs but not blood.

***Wil*** · #47 10-05-2009, 02:13 AM

:

And to others, a feeling of embarrassment for the person. The guy was in his seventies and was in Thailand working on a movie, despite already having made his name in movie history. What the fuck convinced him to to this in the first place?

What convinced him to do what? Appear in a film he wanted to do, or perform a sexual act he wanted to do?

Software Bug · #48 10-05-2009, 04:14 AM

Yeah, donor here, mainly due to the attention its being given using ads etc here in The Netherlands

(And thats a good thing)

Wings of Fire · #49 10-05-2009, 05:37 AM

I plan to become a donor when I actually get round to it.

used:) · #50 10-05-2009, 07:23 AM

:

What convinced him to do what? Appear in a film he wanted to do, or perform a sexual act he wanted to do?

The sexual act.

MeechMunchie · #51 10-05-2009, 08:28 AM

When I die, I might be cremated, have the ash made into glass, which is in turn made into a small statue of me for the mantlepiece.

Josh · #52 10-05-2009, 08:39 AM

Now THATS an idea!

***Wil*** · #53 10-05-2009, 10:37 AM

Since the conversation is heading that way (and may eventually need to be split), I’m hoping that either promession or a vegan alternative to resomation are readily available for my non-donatable remains.

OANST · #54 10-05-2009, 10:45 AM

I'm not allowed on account of fear of AIDS.

used:) · #55 10-05-2009, 10:45 AM

How so?

Bullet Magnet · #56 10-05-2009, 10:46 AM

That would be due to your history of drug use, right?

OANST · #57 10-05-2009, 10:49 AM

That would be correct.

To be clear, I don't have AIDS.

Bullet Magnet · #58 10-05-2009, 11:22 AM

You'd think a simple test for blood-borne pathogens would be worth all of your delicious organs.

OANST · #59 10-05-2009, 11:24 AM

You'd think.

Wings of Fire · #60 10-05-2009, 11:29 AM

It's like the 80s never died.