Is accepting another person's organs acceptable?

[RebeccaFog]

Hi,

   This statement is going to rile some of you, but here it is; to me, accepting another person's organs for transplant is tantamount to cannibalism.  So, I vote NO.

   I understand that others don't feel this way and I am okay with that.

   What do you think, and why?

   Whatever your feelings, please do not judge differing opinions.

   FYI - I'm perfectly fine with mechanized, artificial, and technical treatments.  I'm borderline on animal parts, or, I'm just borderline period.

[tinkerbell]

If an organ transplant is what I need to SAVE my life yes; anything less than that (i.e, corneal transplant, etc) no.

tink

[NickSister]

I suppose it is a kind of canabalism.

My view is that it is more than acceptable in the right circumstances.

When someone is dead, my belief is that their body is just a shell. What they were has gone. Yeah, if you needed to eat them to survive then eat them you can. Also I believe that offering someone part of your own body is a massive offering. If I had the opportunity to provide an organ to someone I loved - my wife, child, sibling, I would do it. Imagine this organ that you grew in your own body now working in someone elses body keeping them alive. That is an ultimate expression of care for another human.

To decline this expression without good reason is wrong to me. The exceptions for me include the receiver wants to die, they believe your life will be badly impacted and would rather die than negatively affect your life, the organs are stolen, they belong to someone you would rather not have a part of..

[RebeccaFog]

Oddly, I don't have a problem with giving my organs to another person.  I just don't want theirs.

You all have good points.  I can appreciate your views.

   I'm beginning to wonder if I would have a problem with accepting an organ from a living donor.  At least, then I would know that it was done willingly and of the donor's own free will.   I hadn't considered that one.
   I would never take the hospitals word that an organ from a deceased person was obtained morally.

   As to cannibalism.  If we take the organs of dead people for transplants, why not go a step further and start serving human flesh at sports events?

[NickSister]

I want the 'man burger' with cheese 

[Nero]

If I'll die without the transplant of someone's organ, I wouldn't care if it WAS cannibalism.

[Jeannette]

I want the 'man burger' with cheese 

Certainly!  Would you like fresh human blood with that? >

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk

[RebeccaFog]

   I wonder if a man burger would taste different than a woman burger?  One of you will have to check it out and let me know.

[lisagurl]

Your whole body is made up of atoms that have been elsewhere. Think about water.

[RebeccaFog]

Hi Lisa,

   It's so much that the parts have been somewhere else, it's the possibility that the organs may have been obtained immorally.  I've been reading lately about organ people pretending to work in hospitals and preying on the sick and their family's emotions in order to obtain organ possession.  There have been a few doctors cited for shutting down life support systems earlier than they should have in order to obtain organs.

   China has been taking prisoners out and shooting them for their organs.

   There's just too much baggage for me to take a chance.  If I ended up with one of these improperly obtained organs, I'd be required by my own personal code to kill myself.

   I prefer machinery.

   I did change my vote to UNSURE because if the organ were offered to me by it's living owner, it would be acceptable to me.

[lisagurl]

Corruption can be found anywhere humans are. Morals and ethics are different problems than having an organ replaced by one from outside the body. It will not be long with stem cells and technology that they may be grown from your own DNA. It is a political and moral problem if there are those in society that feel that money matters more than people.

[RebeccaFog]

I forgot to say I'm okay with cloning or stem celling various organs and body parts.

[NickSister]

   I prefer machinery.

I think Rebis secretly wants to become the Bionic- um person (or would you prefer bionic-androgyne? Damn PCness, bionic-man sounds better.).

An interesting point of view is that machinery is genderless...


I get the impression that woman burger would be sweeter than a man burger. More tender.
Don't eat a vegetarian, they just taste like beef...and vegans taste like chicken.

[Dennis]

Hi Lisa,

   It's so much that the parts have been somewhere else, it's the possibility that the organs may have been obtained immorally.  I've been reading lately about organ people pretending to work in hospitals and preying on the sick and their family's emotions in order to obtain organ possession.  There have been a few doctors cited for shutting down life support systems earlier than they should have in order to obtain organs.

   China has been taking prisoners out and shooting them for their organs.

   There's just too much baggage for me to take a chance.  If I ended up with one of these improperly obtained organs, I'd be required by my own personal code to kill myself.

   I prefer machinery.

   I did change my vote to UNSURE because if the organ were offered to me by it's living owner, it would be acceptable to me.

I have had privileges that are gained immorally because I'm middle class, able-bodied and white, now because I'm male. If I turned them down, it would make no difference to the structure that gave them to me. What I can, and try to, do, is use those privileges that I have to make a difference. Maybe it's not a huge one, but I wouldn't be able to do it if I turned them down.

If you turned down an organ donation and died because of it, what difference would that make to the problems that exist?

Dennis

[RebeccaFog]

If you turned down an organ donation and died because of it, what difference would that make to the problems that exist?

Dennis

Most of my quandaries end with that question or one similar to it.  It is a difficult one.

[ChildOfTheLight]

I have had privileges that are gained immorally because I'm middle class, able-bodied and white, now because I'm male. If I turned them down, it would make no difference to the structure that gave them to me. What I can, and try to, do, is use those privileges that I have to make a difference. Maybe it's not a huge one, but I wouldn't be able to do it if I turned them down.

Here's my thought: how many of those "privileges" are only what should be the natural rights of every man?  (And by man, I mean human, the way it used to be.)  Insofar as that is true, your actions follow: use your rights, which are not being denied, to fight for the rights of others.  And that's a good thing to do, to whatever extent you can do it.

To answer the original question, yes, it is, as long as they are donated voluntarily.

[Terra]

Hmm, usually I have only thought about giving mine, not receiving. I think I might, I feel that if even in death I can help someone, then by all means take 'em. I like to think that is what runs though everyone's mind when they check off that box.

As for the argument of praying on people for organs. Well you will find good and evil in every group and subgroup, even such extreme minorities like us. I like to think that for the most part the system works like it should. But if I were in such a situation where I might need an organ transplant, I most likely at this point in my life would probably refuse on personal reasons that have nothing to do with where the organ came from.