When The Season of Giving Continues After Death
Choosing Organ, Bone, & Tissue Donation
Memes are my love language. They’re not always truthful though and often lead to incorrect negative interpretations. I’ve recently seen a couple that poke fun at a subject I hold dear, and am compelled to speak up. Don’t let memes influence your opinions about such critically important topics as organ, bone, and tissue donation. Allow me to dispel some common misconceptions and share the significant benefits of donation!
The short version: do not automatically disqualify yourself.
You don’t need to be in a perfectly healthy, youthful body to donate organs, tissue, or bones. Old people, sick people, religious people, tattooed people, and LGBTQ people are all allowed to donate.
Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and tissue recovery services can essentially perform magic. Let them determine your eligibility. They might not accept you for certain types of donations, but approve you for others. If certain conditions prevent you from donating anything to a living recipient, you can also authorize donation for research and education. You’re still saving lives, just in a roundabout way. How else will researchers discover new ways to treat diseases?!
What can you donate?
A LOT more than you think. Big organs, like the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and intestines. The pericardium, which is the sac around the heart. Skin, either thin layers like chicken skin, or thick layers an inch deep. Arm bones. Leg bones from the pelvis down to the heel. Arteries and veins. Eyes, but usually just the corneas and not the entire eyeball. Miscellaneous bits like tendons, valves, and nerves. There are rare cases of people donating hands and faces. Fun fact: you can be a living donor and give up a kidney, some small intestine, bone marrow, blood, or a chunk of liver! Why wait until you die?!
You can donate or receive organs well into your 50s, 60s, 70s. One out of every three donors is over fifty. Eighty-year-olds can donate kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, pancreas, cornea, skin, bone, bone marrow and intestines. Rather than discriminating by age, organizations refuse bodies based on medical criteria (no HIV, active cancer, systemic infection).
In many areas, there’s no age limit to donation. A 92-year-old man gave his liver to a 69-year-old woman, plus there’s been a 93-year-old kidney donor and a 99-year-old cornea donor. Clearly, age restrictions differ by location, but it’s worth looking into rather than assuming you’re ineligible. Some organizations change their age guidelines multiple times each year and have different restrictions for different parts! Again, let them determine your eligibility instead of assuming you can’t donate anything.
Now that you know your age and health don’t prohibit your donation, what about your religion? Good news! Just about every religion views it as an act of compassion. Some actively endorse organ donation, while others simply don’t oppose it, allowing it to be the family’s choice. Here are some broad views on organ donation from major religions. There are many religions and degrees of conservatism, so check with your own spiritual leader for guidance about navigating gray areas. It’s worth seeking a second opinion if your leader in unsure or not up to date with current interpretations of their scriptures.
Other persistent myths that stop people from considering organ donation are based on outdated views and old safety measures. The LGBTQ community is not prohibited from donating organs. There is a gray area about gay men donating corneas and tissues since they are regulated by the FDA’s policies. Organ donation policies are governed by Health and Human Services, so they have different rules. Interestingly, a law was passed in 2015 allowing HIV positive organs to be donated to recipients with HIV. As of 2018, 100 lifesaving organ transplants have been performed on HIV positive recipients! Source.
Folks with tattoos may donate too. For skin donors, the recovery team may leave the portions of skin that are covered with tattoos. Families can also request recovery teams to leave tattooed areas intact, which may prevent the recovery of certain parts. Issues arise if there are too many “unprofessionally done” tattoos, since they likely haven’t adhered to proper health and safety guidelines. Those potential donors are likely to be declined.
Are you still on the fence? Let’s clear up some other misconceptions.
Medical professionals will ALWAYS try their hardest to save your life, even if you’re registered as a donor. They don’t even think about your organs until you’re irreversibly dead/brain dead. An entirely different team of medical professionals handles donors.
There is no coming back after brain death. Brain death IS death. Only after you’re declared clinically and legally dead is organ donation an option.
Donation is FREE. Your family won’t incur any medical expenses related to donation. They will be responsible for the medical treatments you receive in efforts to save your life and then the funeral expenses afterwards, but nothing from the donation portion.
You can stipulate which parts you want to donate. Also, hand and face donations are not included in standard donor authorizations. They require additional permission.
Your organs don’t go to rich celebrities first. There are strict guidelines in place for the wait list. Priority is determined by blood type, body size, location, severity of illness, and length of time on the waitlist. The best candidate for the organ is chosen accordingly.
There is a tremendous need for donors with different ethnic backgrounds. People of African American/Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native and multiracial descent currently make up nearly 58% of individuals on the national organ transplant waiting list (Donate Life). Better matches and greater transplant success are best facilitated by donors from similar backgrounds.
Open casket funerals are absolutely possible, with virtually no delay.
I’m going to get up on my soapbox for a moment as an embalmer and a funeral professional.
I have a love/hate relationship with organ and tissue donors. Make no mistake, I whine and complain about the extra time and effort it takes. My hands cramp from hours of suturing. I struggle to treat the underside of the body that I can’t reach without a second pair of hands. I choke on the fumes from so many extra chemical treatments. I worry about missing a spot and having it leak in the casket. My feet and back ache from so many hours standing.
However.
All of that hard work is worth it. Knowing that this person has saved lives through their untimely death makes it worth it.
Knowing that they have directly improved the quality of life for up to 75 people makes it worth it.
Knowing that eight other families are not also having funerals this week makes it worth it.
Knowing the ripple effect of how many of those recipient’s loved one’s lives have been touched through this one selfless act makes it worth it.
It’s astounding to think about. The embalmer’s small but tough role in the process helped, and I take pride in that.
Preparing donors definitely takes extra time and skill. Recovery teams rarely discuss the mortuary’s needs, or it just doesn’t sink in amid the family’s extraordinary grief. An additional day or two before the viewing is usually enough to properly embalm a full donor (that means organs, skin, and bones).
Another critical detail is how to choose an appropriate garment for the viewing. I once had a family bring a spaghetti strap sun dress for someone with an autopsy incision, no arm or leg bones, and no skin on her back. Evidence of donation can be better concealed with slightly loose, long-sleeved, high-necked outfits. Darker colors are preferable, and definitely nothing sheer or see through. The body will be dressed in a plastic suit underneath their clothes to prevent leaks. A spaghetti strap sun dress would reveal all of our preparation and leak prevention measures!
Any funeral home that discourages viewing after donation is either lazy or inadequately trained. Period.
Either way, don’t allow memes to dissuade you from considering donation. It’s SO important. There are currently about 107,000 people in the US waiting for a transplant.
A new name is added to the list every 9 minutes.
About 17-20 people each day die because they didn’t get the organ they needed. That’s over 6000 a year.
Just ONE donor can save up to EIGHT lives, plus improve the lives of 75 people. That’s people who can suddenly see, walk, run, work, play, and enjoy families.
Think about a single organ recipient, living an extra 20 years. How many lives will that recipient touch and influence? How many people will they meet and affect over those 20 years? How many kids will get to know their parents in adulthood, and how many parents will get to experience grandchildren?
You can create a silver lining out of an otherwise senseless and tragic loss. You can prevent other families from experiencing the devastation of a preventable death. Maybe you’ll even earn some good karma in case a friend or relative ever needs a transplant. What goes around comes around.
Reader, you can (and should) register as a donor. Don’t wait until tragedy hits. Have a discussion with your family now, so they won’t have to agonize over what you may have wanted. Communicate how important your wishes are. Advise them of your preferences or limitations. Ask them what theirs are too.
The absence of your organs in your grave means the presence of LIFE in another human being. Donate.
Donation Links and Resources:
Register to be a donor with the National Donate Life Registry (USA) here.
Or, register through your state (USA) here.
Or, say YES when renewing your driver’s license through the DMV.
Or, access your iPhone’s Health app and tap your profile picture at the top right, then select Organ Donation
International visitors: check here for organ donation societies in your region. Or, Canada UK Australia New Zealand.
Religious views on organ and tissue donation can be found here.
Veteran funeral director, embalmer, and lifelong bookworm, Louise finally found her purpose: educating and entertaining strangers on the internet about dead bodies and funerals.
Her blog, Read In Peace, combines her passion to educate with fun and humor. She shares tips and useful information about death and funerals, along with lighthearted “dissections” of related books and movies.
Louise is currently working on her first book, a nonfiction guide called Embalming For Amateurs.