Students debate the meaning of organ donations

Morgan Garces / Contributing Writer

It is estimated that 70 people a day are given a second chance because of organ donation. However, every day approximately 18 others die while waiting for a replacement organ.

Organ donation can mean many things. To those with the red font beneath their driver’s license, organ donation is “the removal of tissues from a person who has passed away,” said Amanda Mameghani, a junior advertising student who has been a donor for 6 years.

For Shelly Greg, a junior social work student, it was an opportunity to help her cousin. “He needed a kidney and we were the same blood type,” Greg said. “I really didn’t take my consideration in. My cousin was sick so I was like, ‘Let me do it.’”

With benefits such as saving a life, some people may wonder why people opt-out of being a donor. According to a study done on slideshare.net, the number one reason why people avoid being donors is because of inaccuracies or lack of information. 

“I really don’t know much about the procedure besides the purpose. I would assume it to be much like any organ transplant operation,” said Mameghani.

The donation of an organ is a routine operation similar to that of a gallbladder or an appendix removal.

Many myths have emerged from the rudimentary information many people know. One of those being that religion won’t allow the removal of an organ after death. Most organized religions support organ donations and view it as charitable. However, there are exceptions to this generalization.

The gypsy religion rejects organ donation because they believe that after the body passes, the soul retraces its steps for a year, and must retain its organs to maintain his or her physical shape. The Shinto religion strongly believes in the idea of purity and wholeness of the physical body which ties in with the Japanese belief that the removal of organs violates the sanctity of the deceased.

According to Mary Lou Pfeiffer, Honors college fellow, there are certain sects in Christianity that don’t accept blood transfusions and organ donations. They consider the body a holy temple in itself and as something that should not be punctured.

“Without organ donations, we would not be able to save as many people as we can,” Pfeiffer said. “But organ donations have created an extensive black market.”

The belief that doctors won’t see you as a priority for resuscitation is another myth that hangs heavy on non-donors’ minds. Max Vanderploeg, a junior business management major remembered an accident.

“One of my motorcycle buddies and his girlfriend were in an accident. He was a donor and she wasn’t, so they took priority to her and by the time they got to him he had passed.”

After this event, Vanderploeg “lost faith in the system” and removed his name from the donor list. However, according to slideshare.net, the medical team and the transplant team are kept separate, and the transplant team is not notified until your family agrees to the donation.

Ross Rush, a sophomore and psychology major remembers when he signed up to be a donor, “My girlfriend at the time said that when the ambulance arrives they check your license to see if you’re an organ donor, but that’s not true, they don’t check your license.”

In the United States, 38 percent of drivers are registered organ donors. However, there are nearly 110,000 people on the organ waiting list.

Rush strongly supports donating organs to help people and wonders why one would not be a donor.

“What’s the purpose of not donating when you don’t need them? Why not give when you’re gone?”