4 ms·

Serious question, in the event that we don't have fatalities from auto accidents, where will the organ donations come from? Will it be a good push for stem cell

Serious question, in the event that we don't have fatalities from auto accidents, where will the organ donations come from? Will it be a good push for stem cell technology?

grzm 10y ago
Interesting question, though I'd want to know what the breakdown for organ sourcing is before I consider what the impact would be.
- roflchoppa 10y ago
  i would assume that it would be a majority of the donations, i cant think of other ways people die where their organs could still be utilized? (drug OD // old age // etc)
  - grzm 10y ago
    Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that it's a major source as well. Looks like drug overdose is a significant (and unfortunately increasing) source: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/14/497799446/organ-donations-spike-in-the-wake-of-the-opioid-epidemic http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/14/49779944... Looks like suicide is significant as well, though I'm not sure how to interpret this section of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_donation#Suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_donation#Suicide Crikey. What a morbid subject. :/
    - roflchoppa 10y ago
      I would think that organs that are harvested from OD victims would not be "good" because of the harm that the drugs can cause the organs? Perhaps its organs that were not effected // deemed usable.
      - grzm 10y ago
        From the NPR article: Dr. Jay Fishman, associate director of [Boston's Mass General] transplant center, says an organ from someone who used drugs is not necessarily risky and may even be healthier than other options. "You have to remember that as awful as this outbreak is, these are younger people who are dying, often with needles in their arms, and many of them were first-time drug users," Fishman says. "They weren't all addicts."
adamtheclayman 10y ago
Zombie donors already aren't even remotely adequate for our kidney donation needs. We need more living donors to step up... ordinary people like you and me, willing to spend a couple days in the hospital mostly pain-free to give others an average of 12+ years of longevity. Unlike women, who can give birth and gift 76 - 80 years of life at a time (falsely assuming present longevities), living non-zombie kidney donation is the only life-giving medical operation that billions of males are uniquely qualified to undergo to give another person 10+ years of life in one dose at mortality rates that are lower than most women routinely undertake on behalf of their families, their children, and their husbands in their lifetimes with replacement rate pregnancies.
copperx 10y ago
We can make organ donation an opt-out checkbox.
- redial 10y ago
  But the question is when would they donate their organs? (Making the assumption that most organ donations come from people in car accidents).
- roflchoppa 10y ago
  i dont see why you would not want to be an organ donor, body is just a rental anyway?
  - ajmurmann 10y ago
    I think the parents point is that we have seen in some places (Netherlands?) that a dramatic increase in organ donors happened when they switched from opt-in to opt-out.
    - pjmlp 10y ago
      In Portugal we have opt-out, while here in Germany it is opt-in, I never understood the decision, exactly because of what you mention.
  - unimpressive 10y ago
    Religious beliefs, cryonics. (But then I repeat myself...)
FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
You answered your own question. By the time we see a serious drop in auto fatalities because of mass adoption of Autonomous vehicles, Id imagine we'll be able to 3D print organs that wont encounter rejection. Alternatively, you could always take a medical holiday to China.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  This has already happened there has been a huge decline in available donor organs due to reduced road fatalities, especially the kind that still leave organs viable for harvesting.
tedunangst 10y ago
Think of it in reverse. The survivor of the accident that doesn't happen donates their organs to themself. Organ donation is just one means to increase survivorship, but there are other means as well.
visarga 10y ago
It's already been that way since safety belts became mandatory - the number of organs for available for transplant plummeted.
psherman 10y ago
Perhaps a not so serious answer, but Larry Niven has a number of science fiction stories based on this concept, which is dubbed organlegging [0]. The one that sticks out in my mind is The Jigsaw Man [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organlegging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organlegging [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man

Serious question, in the event that we don't have fatalities from auto accidents, where will the organ donations come from? Will it be a good push for stem cell technology?

grzm 10y ago

Interesting question, though I'd want to know what the breakdown for organ sourcing is before I consider what the impact would be.

roflchoppa 10y ago
i would assume that it would be a majority of the donations, i cant think of other ways people die where their organs could still be utilized? (drug OD // old age // etc)
- grzm 10y ago
  Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that it's a major source as well. Looks like drug overdose is a significant (and unfortunately increasing) source: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/14/497799446/organ-donations-spike-in-the-wake-of-the-opioid-epidemic http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/14/49779944... Looks like suicide is significant as well, though I'm not sure how to interpret this section of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_donation#Suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_donation#Suicide Crikey. What a morbid subject. :/
  - roflchoppa 10y ago
    I would think that organs that are harvested from OD victims would not be "good" because of the harm that the drugs can cause the organs? Perhaps its organs that were not effected // deemed usable.
    - grzm 10y ago
      From the NPR article: Dr. Jay Fishman, associate director of [Boston's Mass General] transplant center, says an organ from someone who used drugs is not necessarily risky and may even be healthier than other options. "You have to remember that as awful as this outbreak is, these are younger people who are dying, often with needles in their arms, and many of them were first-time drug users," Fishman says. "They weren't all addicts."

adamtheclayman 10y ago

Zombie donors already aren't even remotely adequate for our kidney donation needs. We need more living donors to step up... ordinary people like you and me, willing to spend a couple days in the hospital mostly pain-free to give others an average of 12+ years of longevity. Unlike women, who can give birth and gift 76 - 80 years of life at a time (falsely assuming present longevities), living non-zombie kidney donation is the only life-giving medical operation that billions of males are uniquely qualified to undergo to give another person 10+ years of life in one dose at mortality rates that are lower than most women routinely undertake on behalf of their families, their children, and their husbands in their lifetimes with replacement rate pregnancies.

copperx 10y ago

We can make organ donation an opt-out checkbox.

redial 10y ago
But the question is when would they donate their organs? (Making the assumption that most organ donations come from people in car accidents).
roflchoppa 10y ago
i dont see why you would not want to be an organ donor, body is just a rental anyway?
- ajmurmann 10y ago
  I think the parents point is that we have seen in some places (Netherlands?) that a dramatic increase in organ donors happened when they switched from opt-in to opt-out.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    In Portugal we have opt-out, while here in Germany it is opt-in, I never understood the decision, exactly because of what you mention.
- unimpressive 10y ago
  Religious beliefs, cryonics. (But then I repeat myself...)

FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago

You answered your own question. By the time we see a serious drop in auto fatalities because of mass adoption of Autonomous vehicles, Id imagine we'll be able to 3D print organs that wont encounter rejection. Alternatively, you could always take a medical holiday to China.

dogma1138 10y ago
This has already happened there has been a huge decline in available donor organs due to reduced road fatalities, especially the kind that still leave organs viable for harvesting.

tedunangst 10y ago

Think of it in reverse. The survivor of the accident that doesn't happen donates their organs to themself. Organ donation is just one means to increase survivorship, but there are other means as well.

visarga 10y ago

It's already been that way since safety belts became mandatory - the number of organs for available for transplant plummeted.

psherman 10y ago

Perhaps a not so serious answer, but Larry Niven has a number of science fiction stories based on this concept, which is dubbed organlegging [0]. The one that sticks out in my mind is The Jigsaw Man [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organlegging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organlegging [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man