I've had this done, not to donate, as my marrow is pretty rubbish, but for a test. It didn't even take a General anasthetic, it just took a bit of sedation. (More because I've a needle phobia than any actual need The procedure was done in my hospital room, I just lay on my side. The skin is numbed, so you don't feel anything til the needle hits the bone. It's impossible to numb the bone, but as far as I remember the pain wasn't major. Afterwards, I had a bit of an ache, but not much. I certainly wouldn't be frightened of doing it again.

No one would let anyone die, so that they could harvest your organs for little Timmy. Much criteria has to be met before they prove you worthy to donate anything. Organ and tissue donation takes place only after all efforts to save your life have failed, you've been declared legally dead and your family has been consulted.

As I worked in the field and in a hospital, I have seen it.

Life Banc

Yeah, Gnik, the eye thing is creepy, I think. I have watched one when they came for the eyes. Ick.

Still, if you want my peepers, you can have em.

I'm an organ donor, one of my aunties would not be alive if she didn't get new lungs. She had the transplant years ago, and I decided to become a donor then and there.

All things considered, though, if I die it's probably going to be in a messy helicopter or plane crash or I'll be eaten by a polar bear - so I think it's unlikely that my organs will be in a usable state once I'm done with them.


Do any of you fellow Plimers also donate blood? I do, and the best part is getting lots of free milk and cookies afterwards.

I received a liver a few years ago, and at some stage will have to consider a lung transplant. I think of my donor every day. The life transformation she has given me is incredible. I was stuck in hospital most of the time, and didn't have a life. I was given 2 years to live. Years I willed to pass by quickly.
The donor who gave me their liver saved many lives, including mine. Every birthday, Christmas, new year, and "2nd Birthday" I have, I think of her, and what she gave me. She gave me more than a liver, but the means to live, and be happy. To feel like I want to live again, rather that life being a curse. Organs mean more than living a few extra years, it means being able to actually have a quality of life I never thought possible.

My greatest reward is that no one else can see me during a blood donation because I am a complete and total coward.

Its painful if they don't sedate you, the literally have to cut a hole in a bone, and carve out Marrow like you would the guts of a pumkin.

Oh, and I am a Donor. I have friends who arent and I dont understand for the life of me why not.

And if that isn't a reason to tick the box, I don't know what is.

I give blood as often as I can I'm AB-negative which is kinda rare in the UK and I had an op for cancer a few years ago and had to get blood.

I have also been woken up in the middle of the night by the police once asking if I could go to hospital with them to donate blood as the hospital had run out.

I wanted to be an organ donor when I got my new license. I had checked the little box, but apparently there was a bureaucratic mix-up and I'm not now.

So this thread reminds me to seek it out and make sure I am an organ donor.

Odd coincidence, it was on the news today that in the UK it's most likely that the situation will reverse - that unless you specifically opt out, your organs will be considered fair game.

Which to my mind is the way it should be.

I'm all up for it, aslong as my parts can be used when i'm dead I see no point in letting them rot. But like GnikGnok said, I couldnt give anyone my eyes. No problem with skin though.

And in reply to Pock's post, I agree and think it is about time.

They wouldn't take my eyes as I'm red/green colourblind but apart from that they can have what they want.

gammerus made me think of this:

<a href='http://www.plime.com/redir.p?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDRqpTmWmo' class='plime' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'><b>flash video</b></a>

Are they fussy about that? I'm colour-blind too, but I would have thought that if the two options on the table were no eyes and slightly wrong eyes I'd go for wrong eyes.

How weird would that be though - if I had some sort of hideous eye accident that meant I qualified for new eyes and I woke up with non-colour-blind vision? Everything would look so strange.

They don't transplant eyes, love. They take the corneas....If they could transplant eyes, anyone who had a retinal detachment would be able to see again...same for the blind....

Kinda like a brain transplant. We just can't do that kind of stuff.

Not yet anyway.

Or people with spinal injuries would be able to walk again...

Was going more for the flight of fancy there.

Hooray for organ donators! I, too, have "organ doner" on my drivers license- if my death can help anyone have a longer life, then please, take ever part of me you need. Eyes, skin, hair, bones, nipples... it's all up for the taking! And, if no one needs my parts to live, then give them to science.

I read a book once Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers that talks about bodies that are donated to science (did you know that the first crash test dumbies were human cadavers?). Very interesting and humorus... humorus with out being rude.

I really don't want to know what the use would be for a donated nipple.

What if someone where to lose one in a fire?