Editorial

Organ donation

Gregory Sawisky - Photo Editor

With one signature, you can save a life. Possibly several.

I was given that opportunity when I signed up to become an organ donor.

Becoming an organ donor forces us to face the reality of our own mortality. Being that I am young (and, dare I say, somewhat attractive) I am filled with a sense of near-immortality. I can pound back the beers on a Thursday night and pull myself together for a Friday morning class without problem. I don't have arthritis, a bad back, aches, pains or any maladies that prevent me from feeling invincible. Old age seems so far removed that I don't think it even possible.

But when I decided to become an organ donor that meant I had to face the reality that I will die eventually. I don't plan on it being anytime soon, and I'm looking forward to being a crotchety old geezer. But die I will, and I don't have much control over that when it does happen. What I do have control over is what can be done with my body once I perish.

I'll have no use for my kidneys, heart or liver once I'm dead. My pancreas will be useless to me, and my lungs won't be much more than two lumps of dying tissue. But because these organs are useless for me, it doesn't mean they aren't useful for someone else. My lungs could find a new home for someone with lung-cancer. My kidneys could help someone on dialysis. My pancreas could help someone in need of a transplant. Though I may be dead, I can still do good things.

There are people with convictions, religious and otherwise, who believe that the human body is sacred and the organs and blood are not meant to be given away. One obscure biblical verse is all that one religious group requires to abhor the idea of even accepting life-saving blood transfusions (an equally weighty topic suitable for another editorial in the future). I believe that if I have the ability to help others, perhaps to even save a life, then to do anything less would be no different than murder. To sit idle while others suffer is the height of ignorance and selfishness.

Organ donation is a contentious issue. Much like any issue in health care, the topic brings out the best and the worst in debate. Emotionally-charged arguments about organ donation can reach a fever pitch. That is why I chose this topic today: to present and (hopefully) convince you to become a donor as well.

But no discussion on this topic would be complete without addressing an emerging idea that has recently been suggested: automatic organ donation enrollment. It sounds like a scary term and visions of an all-powerful state determining what happens to your body once you die are frightening and completely false. But if a bill were put forward in Parliament or the Legislature resolving that all citizens were to be considered organ donors, then such a bill deserves approval. In automatic-enrollment, every person would be considered a potential organ donor unless he or she opted out. Those with religious convictions or personal beliefs against organ donation could still have their own beliefs respected by opting out.

But that debate is still a far-away notion. In the meanwhile, I encourage you to visit the B.C. Transplant Society website (www.transplant.bc.ca) and become an organ donor. You may not know someone who needs a transplant, but that isn't the important part. To share the gift of life, to ease the suffering of others and to save a life if you can is the important part.