My aunt was a DNR and did donate her corneas. This was in April of 2008.

pretty much what she said. Especially given I would rather be cremated.

I don't think that's what P'gell meant...I think she meant that all people are treated the same regardless of whether or not they are organ donors when it comes to trying to save your life. People with DNR's are treated differently because they do not try and save the life - I don't think it has any impact at all on whether or not they can donate.

That sounds really bizarre to me. My ex-husband has worked in surgeries and donation situations in several NJ, NYC, and Philadelphia hospitals and he's never seen anyone not stitched up and cleaned up respectfully before being sent to the morgue. And both and my best friend and I have worked in funeral homes in NJ and there is literally no such thing as this fee or even this situation here. If a body was ever received in a funeral home with duct tape on it here, people would go berserk and lawsuits would abound. In addition, funeral directors here do not repair anything except their own work or fatal injury marks (when requested by the family for open caskets, etc.). They are never ever responsible for sewing up an unfinished surgery or organ donation.

Tori, my experience is similar. I've never seen or heard of an organ donor being sent to a funeral home "open."

And exactly what I meant about the DNRs. Most people with DNRs have progressive diseases, and as they are dying, other organ systems shut down, often causing organs to become unusable in the process of death.

The only DNR situation where I could see this not being a problem is where a young person with a closed head injury is brain dead, and the family decides not to continue heroic measures to keep his body alive. But, most DNRs are on people with progressive diseases, cancer, heart disease, end stage liver or kidney failure, etc. Organs from a body which has broken down in all or most systems won't usually be used for organ donations.

Maybe the laws are far less stringent in Texas? I know laws of what funeral homes can or cannot do in NJ is extremely tight, even down to who can and cannot touch the body during preparation, and are followed to a 't'.

The education to become a funeral director in NJ requires college, mortuary college, and an apprenticeship as part of mortuary college. There is also only ONE college in NJ that can certify you, or at least was only one when I was interested, which is why I went a different way.

Some states still have two separate professions - a funeral director (more business side) and an embalmer or mortician, that work together, and in a couple states the mortician position still requires full medical training. In some states, no more than high school is required to perform the duties of a funeral director (again, business front end only). It appears that in TX, it is similar to NJ, with one position two do both jobs, requiring both an associates degree plus mortuary college plus licensing boards.

Funny (well, scary to me) side note- to this day, the state of Colorado has no actual certification requirements in place to become an embalmer or funeral director besides a stricty voluntary certification program. This technically means that they can hire ANYONE to remove your organs (just for embalming, not donation) and pump you full of fluids. No offense to anyone in Colorado, but remind me not to die there. Hawaii will also still certify an embalmer with 5 years of apprenticeship but no formal classroom education.

I haven't signed the deal yet. I would suppose that what ever they could use would be ok. I just believe that I'll wear them all out before I go!

I hope not. They all don't wear out at the same time, and partially working body parts are really a pain.......literally.

haha sadly...I have the same fear. So I am NOT an organ donor and I'm not sure that I will ever be. I have lots of time to change my mind *I hope*, but right now its a no.

Oh man, I would totally upvote you if EF had that feature. The Body Farm is awesome!

For anybody interested, it's a research program run by the University of Tennessee that studies the decomposition of human bodies in different environments. This research is used in forensic science. There's a great book about it entitled, "Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales."

I'll stop nerding out now

I looked it up and found that there is one pretty close to where I live... well about an hour away! There are 5 in the US and 2 are in Texas! I think it's awesome that all this research is being done to help solve murders and such! I just can't believe that there is one so close to where I live & I've never heard about it! I knew about the one in Tennesee but I really didn't know there were 2 in Texas much less that it was so close to where I live! I will def pick up that book! =)

my license was cheaper if i decided to be an organ donor. plus, if i'm dead, i have no need for them. let someone else who needs them have them.