Posted by alexandra_k on October 9, 2018, at 18:00:08
In reply to Re: Today's Dominion Post, posted by alexandra_k on October 9, 2018, at 17:51:23
I read this thing on organ transplant... On organ / tissue donation. And there was this thing about surgeons preferring to take donar samples from non-consenting / unaware sources rather than taking donar samples from the many people who were lining up to be donars.
It was about the meanings we attach to body parts... To do with people's psychological acceptance (or rejection) of the grafted organ. To do with the meanings people give to it such that they really want to be organ donors. Some sense of... Matyrdom. Sometimes. A sense of continuity, of doing some good down the track...
Then about this idea of... Steralising things. For wont of a better term. Anonymising things. Banking things. Commodifying the tissue / organ.
This tension between keeping the person as part... Or removing the person from the part. The tension between the donor and the recipient.
And concerns of fairness of distribution and so on.
It was really interesting.
If I were to receive a donated organ / part I would not want to know about the donor. Becuase then the donor would be part of me. That would be... Extremely intimate. Really very. I don't know that I would want just any old person to be that. To feel beholden to just any person... I don't know... I would be concerned they would have hopes and dreams and they would want / expect me to go on to realise those things and I would feel beholden to them and I don't think I would want any of that.
I like the idea of anonymysing.
But other people don't. They don't. They want to donate under these conditions.
I suppose it's similar to adoption. Open or closed? Only there you are dealing with what will ultimately be a life of it's own.
Anyway...
It was interesting. To think about how / why it is so very much easier to bypass consent. But I do feel strongly about getting that right. Matching. Yeah.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1100838
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20180816/msgs/1101277.html