Offf ya, it´s not like I´m planning to walk the streets wanting to kill other people´s children. I was talking about accepting other people´s organs. I don´t really think if I killed somebody, any hospital would accept his/her organs for transplantation, would it? And, multi talented as I am, performing organ transplant is not what I would be able to do on my own I was referring to the situation where I may or may not accept an organ for my child knowing that the donor is brain dead. I sure hope I will never have to make such decision.

As for AE´s question who can decide whether or not a paralysed person can live, I say it is the person himself or herself. I am fond of euthanasia.

(couldn´t resist the newspaper style quote

 How did you get that out of me saying I would not want to live in a vegetative state?

It´s a personal choice.  I don´t want to be fed, and dressed and bathed and by others or to be a burden on the people I love. 

That is not the quality of life that I want. 

One thing that is often missed is the fact that organ recipients need some pretty nasty drugs to prevent their body rejecting the transplant.  I think we imagine a transplant....then all is well and the transplantee goes on and lives a normal life....not so....

Immunosuppresive drugs

The problem is when people get to the state of being paralyzed...they can´t express their wishes very well.................so it is often others who make the decision for them.

Yet another reason to think ahead.

I thought most people knew about the drugs you have to take, to prevent organ-rejection...

Anyway, I think this whole thread is starting to look like an anti-organ transplant thread. Let me make this clear... if something would happen to one of my organs right now, I would gladly take a load of drugs to continue my life. Sure, I would have to adjust some things, but if I can still smile, move around, laugh at jokes, have a job and things like that, I would be a very happy camper. Second, I have an organ-doner card at me at all times. My family knows that if I ever reach a vegitative state, they should pull the plug. They know this even though I´m in my mid twenties. I have seen people in need of donor skin after a massive burn... I have seen somebody in need of donor eye-lenses, basically being blind without them. And a walk around the children´s ward in a hospital almost makes me want to give a kid my lung right there and then.

It´s a story with two sides, but also take into account the odds of stuff like "being trapped into a body." I don´t want to force anybody to be a donor. My brother isn´t, for example. But make an informed decision, and not a decision based on unfounded fears.

Alameda, I don´t think anyone here thinks organ transplant is a petty thing. So we all know that you need drugs to make it work, and even then, there are no guarantees. If you´d rather die than have somebody´s liver or heart, fine. It´s your choice. And I´m sure that a person who gets the liver you wouldn´t take, will be glad to be next on the list. I sure would

Informed decision is the key, hence the donor cards or the ones whose name I have forgotten that say "do not resuscitate". Also, your family should know whether you´d rather live as long as possible even if it means having your bodily functions artificially supported, or would rather prefer to be not supported mechanically.

The bottom line is, it should be a matter of preferrence, not general rule or law.

 Sorry not been here for nearly a week, and there is a picture but how much is it worth.................... hahaha!

Just been reading the interesting debate and views about donating organs etc above.  I am on the organ donor register, regularly give blood and when I asked about being a bone marrow donor I was told I was too old (There was a upper age limit apparently).

Quite frankly if I was in a state where I was vegitative with no brain stem cell activity then I would be more than happy for anything of any use to go to someone who needs it, so long as it was not a murderer!

I think the guy thought to be in the "living coma" in Belgium was an unusual case, and how sad for him that he was like that for all those years.  How an earth he coped with it is beyond me.

I couldn´t understand the article.. but did she apply for asylum?

Daydreamer.....actually I agree 100% with you.....regarding the matter of consent....and that is the issue.  If someone willingly, and with knowledge donates their organs and tissue, G-d bless them. The probem is too many times this is not the case.

How about the people who were coerced out of their organs, or who´s organs were stolen from them?  We know for a fact of the case of Alistair Cooke (I was a fan and listened to his broadcasts every morning), whose tissue was stolen with out permission.  His tissue, being from a cancer victim ,and from a 96 year old was not even legally permissable, but still it was done. It only was an accident that revealed the case......and a whole network of criminals who "harvested", sold and traded in the "tissue".

When so much is at stake, there are those who will do highly unethical and illegal things to profit. There has to be a method to clearly limit illegal and unethical "harvesting". It´s downright goulish and gruesome.

This is trully repulsive, I couldn´t agree more