Organ Donation

I read in the newspapers that hospitals are increasingly eager to harvest organs, waiting as little as 75 seconds after heart stoppage to begin taking organs. Further, there are proposals that everyone be assumed to be a donor in the absence of explicit instructions to the contrary.

I understand that organ donation does alleviate death and suffering for people. But it seems to me that the chief beneficiary in all this is the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

Cost of a liver transplant

"According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), estimated charges for liver transplantation are:

Estimated First-Year Charge: $314,600
Estimated Annual Follow-up Charge: $21,900".

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Therefore, this is my public statement - in the absence of a signed and witnessed statement from me to donate part or all of my body, I explicitly forbid that any donation of my body parts.

Finally, the only circumstances in which I will execute a statement of organ donation is either for a loved one, or if every step in the organ transplantation is non-profit.