Organ donor idea

[ErikJ]

I was just watching today's news that only 40% of people sign donor cards but 18 people a day die waiting for a donor. So it just occurred to me that why dont they make it a law that you can only be eligible for a transplant if you sign a donor card? It seems fair. Or would that be too cold? It would probably immediately take care of the discrepancy problem.

[Live and Learn]

1. I think they should make it so you have to opt out of it.

Most people just don't like to think about it and wouldn't bother.

[ErikJ]

2. Good idea. Is the option on Driver's license renewal?

[Live and Learn]

4. Yes. but it is currently to opt in.

Like I said, I think most people just don't want to think about death so they leave it unchecked. If it were the other way around, I bet we would have a lot more donors.

[REP]

3. Most people waiting for a tx will be unsuitable donors for many organs

Kidney failure, for example, ruins the liver, heart and parathyroid (and the kidneys, obviously) and damages the lungs. The drugs used by kidney patients may render some tissues unsuitable. If there's anything useable, they can have mine, but healthy people rarely think they'll go end-stage; this sort of scheme wouldn't change much.

I'm a kidney patient.

[ejpoeta]

5. my mom had kidney disease. she was sick for like 5 years

and had two transplants. neither took. I'd like to think if she were going through this today she would have survived. I remember going to the hopital with her when she had dialysis and all the others there. Old, young.... I would draw them pictures and such. Sometimes a chair was empty and you'd wonder why they weren't there. She died in 1986. I hope you are doing ok and that medical advances give you a better outcome.

I think that the person meant that you had to sign up before you were sick. It's an intriguing idea but I don't know that it would necessarily make more people sign the donor card. There are so many things that might help create more donors. I think about the healthcare situation and what could it mean to your ability to get insurance if you only have one kidney. And I have no idea of knowing this, but does insurance cover the cost of donating a kidney? the hospital stay? the procedure? who pays for that?

I think I signed my driver's license, but my family knows what my wishes are for sure. We all know what donation means to another person.

[geardaddy]

9. Straight up REP

Renal Trx patient here. The shit the immunosuppresant drugs do to my system make it so I can't even donate blood.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Children?

[LiberalArkie]

7. I believe that anyone riding a motorcycle without a helmet should be automatically an organ donor.

[HopeHoops]

8. They already are - for carrion birds.

[randome]

10. Facebook's new option lets you sign up there.

There was an 800% increase in sign-ups on the first day, which I believe was yesterday.