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.

  After yours and Bill's discussion of Cardiac Arrest, I watched that
particular episode the other night, and I have to agree with Bill
that they simply take the most brutal options... to get an impact at
any cost.

 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.

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

 RM> However, other people have other scruples, and I think I have
 RM> to respect them.

  I do not agree, and I don't respect stupidity. I don't even agree 
that the relatives own the dead body. It's not property! There are 
already strict laws governing what relatives can do with a dead body 
(rofl!), so why not write one law more, and let the doctors have first 
pick of the organs? 

  The way the law is at present, it's mad. I've already signed my
organs over to anyone who wants them, but apparently my next of kin is
able to override this once I'm dead. If I die they own me? What crap!

 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.

  You are getting death mixed up with life! Dead is gone... you ought
to be ashamed of yourself! You'd rather let a perfectly good set of
organs rot and swell, turn green and stink, underground in a box while
the rest of your sweet daughter turned corrupt with them, than let
another human being use the kidneys to live a life, or the corneas to
see, or heart lung and liver to give a full life to nothing but pain?

  Dead is dead... and the usefulness of a dead body is an hour or so.
After that, what remains is in *your* head, as memory alone. The dead
meat is already going off.
 
  I agree that people's wishes have to be respected, so I'd write
a law that simply removed the choice. That way, there is no wish to
respect, and if they don't like it they can root their boot. We are
not allowed to *eat* the dead, so how is this any different?

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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