And in all fairness, a lot of what is done during autopsy or even basic embalming can be pretty extreme to begin with. Once your blood has been drained and replaced with a chemical fluid, many of your internal organs are then 'cleaned out' to be removed of any fluids or secretions. Your eyes and mouth will also be glued shut. So even if you don't donate, your body isn't just being put into a casket in anywhere near 'perfect' shape - a level of mutilation is a part of the process no matter what. less

I am quite willing to donate every organ useable as well as skin, bone, whatever. I am not willing to allow a doctor to decide that I am dead to get them. My family knows if there is no hope and I am gone to let me go and let them carve me up completely. I do not, however, have it on my drivers license. I realize this hampers speedy removal of critical organs but that is kinda the point. No I won't change my mind and no I am not uneducated about the process. I WANT papers to have to be signed and people to have to be consulted! less

In the state where I live, they give you a form on which you can check limitations. I basically said take it all except skin, eyes, or corneas. I have a family friend who is a mortician, and he knows from experience that there's really no good way to take those parts, you always end up looking a mess. I'd like to have an open casket, unless I was in a bad accident, and then in that case they probably wouldn't want my skin, eye, or corneas anyway. less

I agree. I have a good friend who is a mortician as well. He told me how bad it is when they take the eyes, corneas & skin. He also told me that they charge $300 to stitch bodies up after their donation. I think that is horrible that the surgeons that are harvesting won't stitch you up. Supposedly they just use duck tape to keep you together afterwards. I'm not sure if that is just where I live or what but I think it is very dishonorable to those that donate their organs. I think they should at least stitch you back up. I really would like to donate my organs but not if they are just going to duck tape me, leaving my family with a few hundred dollars to fork over to finish the job. less

they also will not try things that only have a 1% chance of working but would kill your organs if you a donor.

before I'm put in the ground I want them to try everything they can to keep my living no matter how unlikely it is. the point where they pull your organs is before the point they would keep trying if your not a donor.. so I say no thanks. less

I hadn't thought much about donating organs, until recently...a friend of mine was shot and killed 7 months ago, and even though he was young, he had his organ donor card on him (here in Canada, or at least Ontario, I believe we get them with our first license?)...anyways, after being murdered "accidentally", my friend saved 5 other people's lives and I'm proud of him. It made me realize how important donating your organs is, and like someone above me said, I obviously won't be needing them anymore when/if that time comes. So why not? less

I think that it is very sad that some people will never get an organ that they need. My neighbor is in her eighties and needs a kidney. She has been on dialysis for years, but she will never get that kidney because she is too old to be considered. The thought is that she wouldn't be able to get the same amount of "life" out of the kidney that a younger person would. Just this last Christmas my neighbor's pregnant daughter and son-in-law were visiting. In the middle of the night my neighbor, a former nurse, ended up delivering her baby granddaughter. She'll never get that kidney, but I definitely think that selection committees are wrong to discount the older people waiting on transplant lists.

I am a organ donor, and I have no problem with anything and everything that may be needed to be taken going to help someone after I am gone. I am planning to be cremated, anyways. I think that the topic of donating blood is just as important, and yet so many people overlook it. I, myself, have a very hard tome donating blood, from finding a vein to getting enough blood, but I am the only one in my family that can. My father's treatments for malignant melanoma in his 20s, my mother's hepatitis in her teens, and my sister's possible brain tumor all disqualify them as donors. It's something that can be done by the living to keep more people alive and we should be doing more of it. less

@ hammer said: the point where they pull your organs is before the point they would keep trying if your not a donor

That is not true. Simply not true. All people, donors or not, are treated the same, unless they have a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order, and those people are not eligible to be donors anyway.

You CANNOT be brought back from brain death. There's no "1% chance" of surviving after the brain no longer works. less

they also will not try things that only have a 1% chance of working but would kill your organs if you a donor.

before I'm put in the ground I want them to try everything they can to keep my living no matter how unlikely it is. the point where they pull your organs is before the point they would keep trying if your not a donor.. so I say no thanks. less

Yeap I dunno but my clinicals are at one of the largest hospitals in Texas and I have seen it. It was last semester. The $300 charge is the main reason we didn't donate my aunt's organs. I think it is crazy. I will see if I can get a list of the costs from my friend. less

Quote from the MAYO CLINIC:

Myth: My family will be charged if I donate my organs.

Fact: The organ donor's family is never charged for donating. The family is charged for the cost of all final efforts to save your life, and those costs are sometimes misinterpreted as costs related to organ donation. Costs for organ removal go to the transplant recipient.

FACTS about organ donation from the Mayo Clinic. less