If A Loved One Needed An Organ Transplant, Would you be4 choosey where the organ came from? ( Archived) (7)

When you or a loved one is awaiting a transplant you gain temporary blinders to get through it - so nearly everyone will just take the organ they are given and the transplant team of doctors encourage this by discouraging the recipient and all family members to not wonder or question where the organ came from. This statement more applies to the West - as another person stated - what's going on in China isn't really morally above boards. So like many I am supporting the choice of take the organ offered to you or your family and question not where it came from. But I'm not really advocating what's happening in China

When my Mother received her transplant we all had been through many of the transplant seminars and had worked with many social workers, doctors, etc before reaching that all important phonecall. We knew - accept what is given and question not its origin. But to this day I still remember my family sharing a waiting room with a father and two children (if I had to guess ages I would say about 10 and 7 approx) who were devastated at the loss of their wife/mother who had been in a car accident that morning. So the longer we were in that waiting room - the more clear it became that their loss was our gain so to speak. (which sounds far worse than intended but I was looking for an easy way to phrase it).

We were all so happy that my Mom's life would be returned to her and the severe health issues that had been plaguing her for years would be gone and she would have near perfect health again - it was also very tragic to share the same waiting room with the people who had to suffer the most extreme loss to give my Mom a second chance at life. I don't think a room could have contained more mixed emotions than it did that very day.

And when my Mom passed away a few years ago, transplant teams approached us and questioned us about donation - we thought because she had already received a transplant and had health issues it wouldn't be an option - they informed us that there were still certain things that would and could be donated if we so chose. We of course chose to donate anything they could possibly harvest. I guess that's what the circle of life is.

Overall - donation cards are so important - its tiny and you carry it in your wallet. You are long and gone from this earth at the time of donation - the body is not scarred or harmed in any way and the difference any donation could make to someone wouldn't be believed or be truly put into words meaningful enough. So please, leave what you cannot take with you and you will give so much life back to someone who still needs it and can use it. If more westerners carried donation cards perhaps events like the ones that caused this original OP to highlight them would not happen as there would be no need to export harvested organs from death row prisoners.