Death and Donating Organs

I took my motorcycle permit test a couple weeks ago. When I was filling out my application to take the permit test, one question stuck out. It was a question requesting permission of having my organs donated when I inevitably die. I thought about it for a moment before I checked 'yes'. That's right, when I die, there is a chance my organs will be taken outta my body and perhaps given to someone else in need of it. The way I think about it, if I'm around this world longer than I should be, it would piss off the people that already want me dead.

When I was looking at the question, it made me think about my mortality. I only thought about it for a moment before I came to the realization that I don't care about death. To me, death is an everyday occurrence. What strikes me as odd is how people seem to be so terrified about it.

A while ago, I took a class in college called 'Death and Dying' and I remember going to a funeral home with my class where we all observed how a corpse is embalmed before being put in a casket, how the funeral service works, what a crematory looks like, and all the various choices of caskets to choose from for burial.

First off, I should mention to you that I got in trouble at the funeral home because of my general outlook on life. I was pretty surprised at how much caskets costs, some of them costing over $20,000 and the cheapest costing no less than around $5,000. Most of the class looked at me in horror when I made a rather rude comment about how it seems like it's really easy to take advantage of grieving families. Grieving families can be very easily taken advantage of. Just watch one of those 'talking to the dead' shows like John Edward's Crossing Over and watch as all those people are easily fooled into actually believing the medium is actually talking to one of their loved ones.

What I find strange is how so many people could be so scared of dying. Being in denial about death doesn't prevent you from dying. Death is absolutely, positively, inevitable. If that's the case, why do so many people dwell on it? How can you dwell on something that you can do nothing about? How can you deny something that can not be denied?

I find it hilarious how people so terrified about death are denying themselves a healthy life because of it. People believe that there is something more to life beyond what we have now, that there is some 'other side'. Of course, there seems to be absolutely no evidence of this whatsoever. Sure, we hear about people having these near death experiences where they believed they were going down some kinda tunnel where they saw a light at the end of said tunnel. What I find funny is that scientists have managed to recreate this near death experience in controlled environments through the simple use of a centrifuge. I wonder why people don't seem to accept such evidence. I guess denial is easier than acceptance.

When I came to the realization that I wanna donate my organs, I realized I need to allow permission for organ donation on the back of my driver's license. As I was filling it out, I noticed I needed to get the signatures of two witnesses so I opted to get the signatures of my mother and my brother.

Well, it seems like my brother and mother weren't too keen on my decision but I don't care. Anyway, that brings me to this question. How come many people don't donate organs?

When you're dead, that's it. You're worm food. So why not at least give someone the chance at life? Okay, granted, an organ transplant isn't as easy as it sounds since there is a chance of the body rejecting the organ, but there is still a chance. The way I think about it, if your donating organs might give a person a 1% better chance at life, why not do it?

I can understand why some people wouldn't donate their organs. Afterall, some people believe in reincarnation and having their organs in someone else might make that not possible. Of course, what's strange is that with the people that believe in reincarnation, they believe their soul is transplanted into a new body. If that's the case, why would they care what happens to their old body anyway? To believe that they won't be reincarnated because a part of them becomes a part of someone else is asinine. I guess that means giving blood or kissing or sex or shaking hands is outta the question.

If you believe your soul goes to Heaven or Hell, then what's the use of worrying about what organs remain in your body after you die? It'd be akin to you climbing out of your car and walking into a building. Whatever happens to your car wouldn't matter since you'll never be seeing that car again. For reincarnation, it'd be akin to exiting one car and climbing into another car, right?

Here's one thing that probably does matter to me about signing the back of my license.

To me, the most important thing in my life at the time of my passing would most likely be my family, especially my children. The only thing that would probably bother me upon my death is not death itself, but the chance that my children could die when I could've prevented it. While there is a high chance a body is not compatible with a donated organ coming from my body, there is probably a better chance of my children being compatible than some perfect stranger. The way I think about it, should I die, the realization that I might be able to save my children's life makes the thought of donating worth it.

Granted, it could be the exact opposite. For all I know, I could hate my children and not want them dead but having signed the card allowed for them to receive my donated organs, if there is ever the chance they might need it, therefore, saving their lives. The way I think about it, I won't really care because I'll be dead anyway so I won't hafta deal with them even if they do survive.

Most of you might be confused about what I'm implying. As a person who genuinely believes that who I am and what makes me the person I am today disappears at the moment of my death, what happens to me or my body after my death is of no consequence. Because of this, I figure I might as well help someone out upon death than not. If possible, I don't want to be buried or cremated. That's because it would cost money out of my family's pockets. I would like to be chopped up by an ax (after my organs have been harvested) and flushed down the toilet. That's because it's cheap and I would be doing my family a favor by not having them pay those exorbitant funeral prices.

Something seems rather strange, for a person who claims to be an asshole, it seems like I'm doing an un-asshole thing by giving permission for having my organs donated and not wanting people to spend money on me after my death ;)

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