BG> Last night's was interesting, where a father wouldn't allow his

 BG> brain-dead daughter's organs to be used for transplants, even

 BG> after he'd actually met one young fellow who'd been enduring

 BG> dialysis thrice weekly since he was aged 8, had badly inflamed

 BG> and infected fistulas, and desperately needed her kidneys.

 BG> Mind-numbing stuff.



 RM> I've missed a few episodes lately, including that one, eg been

 RM> too tired after a day on the choo choos to stay awake that late

 RM> (why is it on so late? it's no more gory than most cartoons),

 RM> but I'd have liked to see their treatment of that one.



 BL>   After yours and Bill's discussion of Cardiac Arrest, I watched that

 BL> particular episode the other night, and I have to agree with Bill

 BL> that they simply take the most brutal options... to get an impact at

 BL> any cost.



If they took the soft answers, they'd have a soapy.



 RM> My own attitude is that the dead person doesn't need them any

 RM> more, and the living person may die without them, so just do

 RM> it.



 BL>   I agree with that. The dead rate zero and the living rate 100. Fuck

 BL> the dead.



I prefer cuddling the living, sorry



 RM> However, other people have other scruples, and I think I have

 RM> to respect them.



 BL>   I do not agree, and I don't respect stupidity. I don't even agree

 BL> that the relatives own the dead body. It's not property! There are

 BL> already strict laws governing what relatives can do with a dead body

 BL> (rofl!), so why not write one law more, and let the doctors have first

 BL> pick of the organs?



That law would have an effect (not in your calloused mind, perhaps,

but in many others) on the euthanasia debate. My only disagreement

with ET is that it could cheapen human life in some cases, eg: "You

sick old bastard, why don't you stop annoying us and leeching my

hard earned money away from my kids? Go kill yourself! After all,

it's legal now!" Add to that the line "Your liver is history, but

someone might live longer with your heart or kidneys, and you get

no say in that. Do something useful for once - bugger off and die."



I'm in favour of euthanasia, but I think the conditions attached

will need very careful consideration. But I digress:



 RM> It must be a real bastard of a decision to make. Eg: if my

 RM> lovely 4yr old daughter Julia who can write sentences that I

 RM> can read and can drive the vcr better than I can and who knows

 RM> two fives is ten and who can identify Sirius and Canopus got

 RM> squashed by a hitrun, and some lifeloving doctor suggested that

 RM> her left lung could be used to help some stranger kid, I

 RM> honestly don't know how I'd react.



 BL>   You are getting death mixed up with life! Dead is gone... you ought

 BL> to be ashamed of yourself! You'd rather let a perfectly good set of

 BL> organs rot and swell, turn green and stink, underground in a box while

 BL> the rest of your sweet daughter turned corrupt with them, than let

 BL> another human being use the kidneys to live a life, or the corneas to

 BL> see, or heart lung and liver to give a full life to nothing but pain?



The benefit to the living is obvious, I agree wholeheartedly. But

asking me for her organs 10 seconds after she dies? What planet are

you from??



It's easy to discuss coldly when we're not involved, but it gets

different when things get personal. I offer as evidence your

uncharacteristic lack of response to my recent abortion of a poem.



 BL>   Dead is dead... and the usefulness of a dead body is an hour or so.

 BL> After that, what remains is in *your* head, as memory alone. The dead

 BL> meat is already going off.



True, but what is in my head will not be cold and rational at that

time.



 BL>   I agree that people's wishes have to be respected, so I'd write

 BL> a law that simply removed the choice. That way, there is no wish to

 BL> respect, and if they don't like it they can root their boot. We are

 BL> not allowed to *eat* the dead, so how is this any different?



er.. are you sure you have your arguments straight? If you allow

immediate automatic resumation of organs on death, why waste all

that meat as well?



--- PPoint 1.88