Organ Donation Part 2
So when I was eighteen, I thought a great deal about the unselfish act of giving a part of yourself to save the life of another person. I was thrilled with the idea of carrying on in a way that one might not expect. I was fine with helping out wherever and whenever I could...In whatever way.
As a young adult, i began to contemplate the fragile questions about God and "a larger plan" and interference with Fate and Destiny. What is Right? How do we play God in lives of others and how do we justify certain acts that take a part in the "greater good?"
These huge questions linger as I push into midlife. But at 21, I decided i did NOT want to donate my organs. My explanation is not clear, though. I change my mind about it regularly. I feel a great deal of shame for being so unsure about something that seems so easy to decide. Are my organs made to "give away?"
Ok.
So...if I have passed away and I am no longer a part of this world, I know that I am not going to be using my organs. I am not my body.
But my body is a reflection of me in this world, it's my tool. It's mine to take care of, to make choices with. No one can take care of it better than me. Right? Can I make choices about it when I am gone?
But if the energy that is Who I Am is no longer using the tool, shouldn't I share the tool with others. Yes.
Well, no. Why is it that humans decide?
A friend of mine, when I said I was a scientist said, "No you are not." He argued that science is not the only lens through which I look to make choices about the world or to veiw situations.
I was in shock at first. Though I should not have been.
My faith is another lens through which I look when I make my decisions, as it should be ( I will not go into detail here about my faith). But my science brain continutes to battle with my spiritual self. Years I have spent questioning, wondering, discovering, rediscovering, and finding forever in every moment. I notice that I have learned a great deal....yet there are still unanswered questions...and therefore...I have learned little.
What if The Divine Plan is that a person is suppose to leave? What if my life and the lessons I am suppose to learn are related to my knee injury? If I donate my organs to others, what if their lessons are altered in a way that they were not suppose to?
I do, however, believe that everything happens for a reason.
Hmmmmm.....
As for organ donation...well...the jury is still deliberating in my mind. And until there is no shadow of doubt, I feel it best to keep my parts to myself....however selfish it may seem.
Knowing tomorrow, I may change my mind.
I will let you know.
posted by tree @ 8:24 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
If you are talking about Divine Plans, then isn't it conflicting to ask "what if a person is supposed to leave?" If your faith/God/etc manifests itself/acts on/in another person... the same applies to you. The same divine plan accounts for you as well and your decisions. The very fact that you are thinking about this question for all these years is an indication - you are struggling with the idea that God/energy/faith/etc and you are two separate forms/entities/dualistic manifestations OR you think about death in a different way.
Search for the roots!
If your knee injury were completely reparable through organ donation and not through a mechanical plate, would you go for it? Before you answer "No", think about whether saying yes would leave you in a worse place to learn your lesson about that injury. I'd say not necessarily. It would help put things in better perspective. Maybe you are strong about that injury, another person would gripe about it and not learn a thing till (s)he was "cured", and then begin to see the light.
Lots of people have changed dramatically because of near-death experiences. How (or whether) they learnt their lessons is up to them. You don't get to decide that, whether you donate your organs or not.
Organ donation is but a small part of what all else you can donate. That friend of yours who is giving up her kidney - would she be willing to use fewer resources for the benefit of starving Kenyans? Would she stop driving, wear two pairs of clothes for a week, eat only 2 meals a day, grow her own food...this way she may be saving a lot more lives than her one kidney can, and without putting herself at greater risk. Maybe she does all this already...the question is...would that be wrong? Are the Kenyans learning some life-altering lessons through a three-year famine? Or are they just too far off, too black, too poor, too inconsequential?
We don't know what "the divine plan" is. We don't know what other people's lessons are - we don't set the curriculum for them. If we donate our organs, we provide them with tools to experience the human condition a little longer, a little more fully - like a few spare school supplies, if you will. Is that a good thing? It is if preservation of human life is a good thing. You are also free to keep your old, used books in a chest and bury them, or burn them and carry the ashes in a little urn.
i have thought of my knee injury. it CAN be "fixed" through a "donation" from a cadavar. I STILL have not done it. I have not fixed my knee for many reasons. My pains are worse now. and I have problem with other parts of my structure because it was never fixed....recommended to be fixed by three dr.s and never fixed.
i beleive that this is for the same reasons i have not donated my organs.
i do find the first comment interesteing about separation from the divine. I need to think about that more.
thanks for the feedback.
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I think the acts of charity that one performs helps oneself more than anybody else, charity makes us feel good about ourselves!
In this sense I would support organ donation, after ones death, as it gives me something positive now.
As for donation while living, it feels like passing on the baton before reaching the end!
Thinking of the body as a tool to get our job done, should we be passing it onto someone without completing our bit?
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