[DoreenMichele]

I loathe the idea that everyone getting replacement organs is some kind of good thing to be shooting for.

I have a condition where organ replacement is fairly common. I very much wish the world invested more effort in keeping people like me actually healthy rather than celebrating the macabre prospect of giving more of us replacement organs.

So this is a problem space I've thought about a fair amount and I have zero sympathy for an argument for engineering organ replacement for everyone.

[XorNot]

You seem unaware of the many and myriad reasons organ transplants are performed. Like you get that by the time doctors are considering it, it's because the alternative is they think you're either (1) going to die soon when it becomes necessary or (2) is necessary right now.

Did you know there are people who survive COVID and wind up in kidney failure from the stress on their body? What's your answer to them? Oh right: hope you can get a kidney and then enjoy life on immunosuppressant drugs.

But you know, go tell those dialysis patients on the waiting list that actually they're not that important.

[DoreenMichele]

You seem unaware of the many and myriad reasons organ transplants are performed.

I'm not. I'm just skeptical that putting more time, energy and money into headline grabbing "heroics" actually makes people healthier and I am very concerned that it only turns people like me into guinea pigs for people who want some limelight more than they want (people like) me to experience some kind of reasonable quality of life.

[XorNot]

> it only turns people like me into guinea pigs for people

Did you also know that you are legally allowed to decline medical procedures? You can even sign yourself out of a hospital AMA ("Against Medical Advice") if you don't like what's happening.

You are also completely free, and generally advised, to seek alternate medical opinions.

The existence of a medical procedure or option has not, and never does, obligate you to take it.

[DoreenMichele]

The absence of alternatives is my concern. If we optimize for better organ replacement instead of optimizing for how to help people keep their existing organs functional, it's really an asinine thing to pretend they have some kind of meaningful choice.

"Oh, well, now that we've let your organs decline this far, you can get a transplant and maybe live. Or you are free to decline it and almost certainly die." is not a meaningful choice.

I've gotten ridiculous amounts of flak for making real choices about my health. Much of the world would like me to know I'm evil incarnate for doing prosaic things like eating better as a first line of defense.