TexasMadness
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Location: Austin, Texas
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Re: Organ Donation
Even if there is a way to opt out, you still don't like presumed consent? It just seems like a better way to do it since the people that feel strongly about it WILL opt out and the people that don't feel strongly know that they will be donors.
There is still a choice. You just have to be proactive about choosing not to instead of being proactive about choosing to.
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10/25/2008, 2:01 am
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TexasMadness
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Re: Organ Donation
What about compensation for donor's family under the current system? What are your thoughts on that? Do you think it would increase donation rates (either by more people registering or more families giving the go ahead afterward)?
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10/28/2008, 1:08 am
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de Corbin
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Re: Organ Donation
I really think that offering compensation would be a bad idea - not because of any potential horror stories of people selling off organs, but for far more human reasons.
Let's imagine that the very worst of all possible things happened, and one of my daughters was killed in a car accident.
I'd happily donate her organs - because I would want some other family to avoid the tragedy that I would be experiencing. That would be a good thing.
But if I recieved some kind of compensation... What would I do with it? Spend it on a vacation? Put a downpayment on a new car? I wouldn't want to touch the money, I wouldn't take any pleasure from having it, I wouldn't even feel right paying bills with it. It would always seem as if the compensation were, somehow (illogical, I know) contaminated by the death of my child.
The only thing I can think of to do with it would be to donate it to something as quickly as possible - and pretend that I'd never had it.
Who would feel right profiting by the death of a family member?
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10/28/2008, 12:10 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Organ Donation
Corbin that's along the lines of what I was thinking. When I first read the idea, I was shocked about the part where it might entice more families to give the go ahead after the fact. I can't imagine "selling" my husbands organs if he were not signed up to be a donor. It would feel...gross.
But, if he had signed up and we knew that I would be compensated and had talked about it, it might be a bit easier. It would basically be the same as life insurance at that point.
Not discussing it and simply getting money for having to make the decision though...ugh. With a child, it would always feel that way I think since they can't sign up themselves yet and you would always have to make the decision.
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10/28/2008, 12:18 pm
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Fenyx
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Re: Organ Donation
the payment must be for the use to pay previous attempted life saving medical procedures - would you take it then>
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10/29/2008, 12:49 am
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de Corbin
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Re: Organ Donation
I actually didn't think of that until after I'd hung up. I have pretty good insurance, and have small policies on my children so that if something terrible should happen, we wouldn't have to sell the house to bury them.
But, of course, not everybody does, and for those people some kind of compensation might be beneficial.
But I don't think so.
Here's why... (I'm going to be very cynical here, so well mannered people might want to avert their eyes ):
Hospitals charge what they can get. Yes, medical costs are fantasitcally high - but that's because enough people (not everybody, but enough) have some kind of insurance that will pay the costs - and cover the costs for those who don't (the bill for the birth of each of my kids was twice that for the purchase of my house. But I didn't have to pay a whole lot of that. The insurance company did).
In other words - the law in economics is: The value of a thing is determined by the price you can actually sell it for.
IF organ donations were compensated, and that compensation were specifically earmarked to offset the cost of previous medical care, it would effectively lower the cost of medical care making it more EASILY affordable.
But, because it is more EASILY affordable, the hospitals and doctors would be able to raise their prices so that they charged more - which would swallow up any benefit provided by the compensation... and I think they would. Medicine is a "for profit" business.
Which would leave those without insurance with an even higher bill to pay. Actually - it would not affect them, as long as they donated organs of family members.
But if they chose NOT to do that, there would be a cost increase for them, increasing the pressure to donate organs, whether they wanted to or not.
But even worse...
Since insurance companies are also "for profit," they would quickly realise that their payout would be lower (and, therefore, profit higher) when people donate organs.
Insurance companies would then put wording into their policies that REQUIRE organ donation as one of the conditions of being insured - in the same way that every insurance policy in effect today grants the right of the insurance company to sue in your name, without your permission.
So, in the end, the freedom to choose to donate organs or not would be greatly reduced.
If there is no real affect on your bill, and there is a net result in the loss of freedom of choice, compensation is a bad idea.
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10/29/2008, 11:48 am
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TexasMadness
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Re: Organ Donation
Oo....now that goes back to Fenyx's comment about choice. I'm certainly against not having the choice to donate or not. While I don't understand why people don't want to donate (yes, I have hear their arguments but most of them are "it's against my religion" and I simply don't "get" that) it shouldn't be forced upon them.
I had actually been thinking about how compensation might affect medical costs in general. The thought that costs would go up just seems logical. Rising medical costs is a big no-no in my book. My brother doesn't have insurance and I've seen first hand how much that sucks. I would have had to sell my house to pay for my gallbladder surgery earlier this year!
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10/29/2008, 1:11 pm
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KaliMorgan76
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Re: Organ Donation
I am an organ donor - I am even thinking of donating my body to the body farm - I would love to be a corpse experiment but my husband is having hissyfits over the later. He thinks it is to weird. But you don't stay on the farm - they bury you after a year of experiments. I am dead anyway. If my spirit is in someway connected to my body heck it could be fun to meet and greet other stiffs before getting my "proper" burial.
--- “Never think that whatever is around you is beyond your comprehension, no matter how complicated it seems.
To attain total freedom, learn how to undo the web of illusion that has convinced you that you are not free…”
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6/15/2009, 8:03 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Organ Donation
Have you read Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers? It's quite amazing what happens to bodies donated to science...
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6/15/2009, 11:25 pm
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KaliMorgan76
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Re: Organ Donation
I had not but I am going to now. I had read about the body farm online - from their site and I have heard that people often donate their body to science for medical purposes but not anything on the actual process of what actually happens if you go the science route oppose to the body farm route.
--- “Never think that whatever is around you is beyond your comprehension, no matter how complicated it seems.
To attain total freedom, learn how to undo the web of illusion that has convinced you that you are not free…”
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6/16/2009, 11:49 am
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