Organ Donor

Now what's the first feeling you get when you read this title? Does it sort of give a shiver up your back and butterflies in your stomach? Scares the hell out of you doesn't it? When I see those two words together "Organ" and "Donor" my legs get kind of shaky and my insides get a bit squirmish. Why? Not because of the fear of having vital organs ripped out of me after death then bound for some desperately rich transplant recipient at the top of the waiting list. My fear is the thought of hospitals supplementing their incomes by botching surgeries and then stealing organs for transplant use, that thought just creeps me out. I know what your thinking, he's got an overactive imagination. Well, maybe I do and maybe I have reasons for having those far out thoughts. Wanna know what my reasons are for such thoughts? Money, plain and simple.

A liver transplant averages about $300,000.00. That's enough for the surgeon, the coroner and the coverup. Kidney transplants (one kidney) bring in about $100,000.00, plus $12,000.00 in follow-up care annually. They're all in it for the money, and if you don't believe that just look at the cost for medical insurance.

What makes the profits so enticing and mouthwatering is that the parts are FREE. There's no overhead, so to speak. Currently people in the United States are not allowed to sell theirs or any else's body parts or organs.

There's been this big legislative battle about whether to legalize the selling of one's organs either while living (a person can live with just one kidney) or posthumously with money going to the donor's person of choice. The fears of allowing this are many and even scarier than my imagined butchering by a hospital.

Imagine that a law has just gone into effect that allows any person to contract the sale of any part of his or her body at whatever price he chooses to a hospital or insurance company. Bob decides to sell his liver to a hospital. He gets the money up-front, $25,000.00 and chooses to give-up his Liver upon his death. Somewhere in a computer is a list with Bob's name showing that he's consented to a liver donation and has been paid. Somewhere there's a hacker that steals that list and sells it to the highest bidder. That bidder is most likely a desperate man with lots of money to offer and he ain't offering a cent to Bob. Instead he's offering it to the person who can assassinate Bob without damaging his liver and making it look like death by accident, suicide or natural causes. Only the fourth cause of death, homicide, would bring suspicion to the case and probable cause for nullifying the contract. In the meantime Bob is dead, his liver is being prepped for transplant to the body of the highest bidder that paid handsomely for it and everyone involved from the hacker to the assassin has been paid for their services. Bob gets a burial plot and the highest bidder gets extended life. And it was all because of the money. No hard feelings Bob, just business.

The beauty of the business is that it stimulates employment and financial growth in the economy, addresses the problem of overpopulation and homelessness, encourages living healthier lives as written in donor contracts (donors who abuse their bodies will be terminated after three strikes). The rich will get richer and the poor will get dead quicker. What we'd have is a world where finding a finger in a bowl of chili would be like hitting the lottery instead of conspiracy to extort. Think today's DMV Donor program isn't tracking body parts when auto accidents occur? Well, in this new donor program DMV would probably become a bigger player in tracking and collecting body parts. And if by chance some mistake was made and your organs were transplanted upon your untimely death in error; no litigation needed, you're already dead, you're family will receive reimbursement for the organ(s) at market value at time of death plus free burial. Everyone alive is happily paid and anyone dead is.......dead and noncompliant.

So that's my sick and twisted view of Organ Donation. Here's a link with an article that threw my overactive imagination into overdrive: How to Solve the Organ Donation Shortage.

And here's a link to the National Transplant Society for those readers who have less imagination and better faith in the current system than I.

You can also thank this book I just started reading entitled "Donor" by Frank M. Robinson. It's a fictional novel, I think.