[silencio]

For those of you in CA similarly disturbed by this story, a side link in this story talks about how to put limitations on your organ donor status. I did not know this was an option.

I don't know how helpful this will be - for example, there's an option to restrict donations to only non-profits, but OneLegacy (from the story) is one of the four nonprofits in CA that procure organs and runs the registry.

There's also limitations per organ/tissue option, and for research. Also for "life-saving and reconstructive purposes" only.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/about/donatelife/do...

[eth0up]

+1

Good work! This is important information and I hope it stays at the top of the comments. I'll be looking for a FL version.

Edit note: With privacy and security in mind, I'm not 100% sure how comfortable I am with enrollment and modification ability thereof occurring directly through the internet.

[silencio]

Short of saying no to heart valve/skin/bone donations, I find it unclear how this will play out in practice though. Like, OneLegacy is a nonprofit so if I select the nonprofit-only box, what happens? Or, how do you determine that a heart valve donation isn't life-saving?

This is really frustrating to me, even as my dad is on a transplant waiting list. The Donate Life page does give me an idea though: I can specify directed donations through an advance healthcare directive. I'm pretty tempted to leave my kidneys to my father and then find a way to explicitly donate my body to an organization that won't leave me with as many questions as these organ procurement nonprofits do.

[the_pwner224]

From the research I did as an Illinois resident: Your body is divided into organs (heart, kidneys, liver, etc.) and tissues (skin, cornea, tendons, etc.). Organs are the real life-saving donations and they must be transplanted fresh within a few hours of death. Tissues like skin and bones get ground up/processed and sold - occasionally for really great purposes like helping burn victims or people with torn ligaments/tendons or cornea transplants, but also for things like making penises & lips bigger. Dunno where heart valves fit into this... maybe the entire heart is an organ but if they cut it up and only take the valves those count as tissues?

The chart in the article with prices of body parts only lists tissues - probably because it is illegal in the US to buy/sell organs; organs go to a match through the central first-come-first-serve registry. It does mention instances of organs also being harvested and the negative externalities of that, but at least those organs had a large effect on someone else's life. The same often can't be said about tissues.

I have taken myself off of the state's 'organ donor' list, which is actually for both organs and tissues. IL also seems to have a harvesting racket like CA; there are two harvesting ('procurement') organizations that have computerized access to morgues and coroners. I'm going to find a way to specify that I only want organs to be donated, and perhaps tissues but only to an organization that I trust.

[silencio]

This is the CA donation limitation list: https://i.imgur.com/T6mWt3g.png

The valves are broken out separately from the heart for purposes of donation, and the story also discusses a case of valve harvesting causing a problem.

I'm struggling to figure out where to draw the line until I can update my advance healthcare directive... all these tissues, as you say, can still be valuable. I mostly just hate the lack of transparency in these relationships, and that these organizations seem to be hiding this tissue use behind the actual process of organ donations...