Surrender Those Organs!

England's top doctor says everyone should automatically be put in for organ donation unless they opt out. Although this seems a little fascist -- compelling people to surrender organs -- but there is an opt out function. I never really understood why people were so attached to their postmortem organs anyway. What are you going to do with them? Granted, some religions have a preference for burying bodies whole, which I completely understand. But the majority of religions are silent on this topic. So why not extend the life of someone else if you can't use your organs any more?

In America, we have a check-yes-or-no option for organ donation on drivers' licenses, but what if you don't have a driver's license? In most cases, actually, it doesn't matter if you make it clear on your license or in your will. The remaining family members have the right to make that decision, no matter what your wishes in life were.

This was extremely frustrating when my (now deceased) younger sister was waiting for an organ transplant. The longer she waited, the more organs she needed and the likelihood of success when down. As she inched near the top of the list, we knew that some families may just be choosing to bury their children who died in unexpected accidents without even considering organ donation. My sister died on the waitlist, like many others even today, but now that I've been on that side of it, I'd say, Please, if you can use my organs, by all means, take them.