h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Well, one might. But frankly, it wouldn't bother me at all if my body got minced up for pet food after I was dead. I mean, I'd be dead, so who cares?

I rather prefer the idea that my 'bits' got used to help others - but again, I won't be around to see that benefit.

I've always found it curious that people treat dead bodies as if the person that used to inhabit them is somehow still there - so this dead carcass is due some sort of reverence? It's simply the physical shell that used to have someone living inside it.

I can understand treating the memory of the dead human with reverence and all that - but frankly rotting corpses don't give a damn and neither do I about them.

az

"I've always found it curious that people treat dead bodies as if the person that used to inhabit them is somehow still there - so this dead carcass is due some sort of reverence? It's simply the physical shell that used to have someone living inside it."
Well is there anything else left? The memory you mention is a bit evanescent and can just be bitter sweet.

I'm sorry if that offends, philosopher2 - wasn't my intention.

It's just that, no, for me there isn't anything left of the person once the body dies except a load of flesh about to go all putrid - so best to use it if you can. The person we once knew and loved is obviously no longer inhabiting that lump of flesh.

az

I think you made a good point, philosopher2, we shouldn't feel morally obliged to be organ donors.
Just because so many are now possible, it doesn't mean it's always the right course of action. However, to me, knowing how successful many transplants are, that people can go on to fulfilling lives with their loved ones, it seems a good use of my body once I no longer need it. In the event of a premature death of a loved one, it seems a way that can still be active in helping someone else.

"knowing how successful many transplants are, that people can go on to fulfilling lives with their loved ones, it seems a good use of my body once I no longer need it." Thanks Teaswill. I think I'm inclined to go over the top on this one- probably because of my Christian religion- the body being the "Temple of the Holy Spirit" veneration of the relics of saints etc. I think if a transplant can save the life of a young person it probably is right, although it gives me a pain to see people expecting medicine to overcome every ill and make them live for ever. I'm not very happy at the prospect that I might have given my liver to George Best: but my corneas to a younger person who might live a long life anyway and now a better life, is probably quite acceptable. I still find it a bit spooky though to think of some dead person's bits becoming a part of me- but then I'm lucky enough not to have needed anybody else's bits.

It seems to me, that partly because of TV dramas and the media, people appear to think that transplants are routine, easy and trouble free. Perhaps some people take this to the point of carelessness, abusing their liver on the grounds that transplants are easy, etc. A lifetime on immuno-suppressants and a survival expectancy that it still nowhere near normal (expected without the disease) is the reality.


Anyone is welcome to whatever parts of me they can use. That being said, if I die like most of my immediate family, there won't be much that's usable.

I tend to think, yeah, an opt-out system would be good, but several posts on this thread have made me have second thoughts.

I rather doubt that people abuse their bodies thinking that whatever happens, they can be made well. The human psyche just isn't like that. People are more likely to think they won't get ill, or that they can give up the abuse before it harms them.

Well, quite, Teasswill. I can't imagine that most people waiting for organ transplants are those who abused their bodies without a thought thinking they could just get a 'replacement part' when the time came.

And people who continue to smoke and drink are often struck off the waiting list, as far as I know. Well, unless they happen to be George Best with a private clinic willing to do his op for free.

I think it is a very real need, even though not all organ transplants turn out to be successful.

az

That's where TV soaps are at fault - patients tend to be in just the right place at the right time to get their transplant. They either die dramatically on the table or soon after, or bounce back to vitality within hours.

Documentaries give us a much more accurate picture.

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Exactly my point!

Except that you included media in general, which is not the case & made what seemed an unlikely supposition afterwards. Glad if I was able to clarify what you meant.