I'm sure that the ratio of the number of people, who do donate their organs after death: greatly exceeds that of the people who need organs.
Not really.
And it's not so much about having more donors than there are people who need transplants.
In order to donate most organs (besides kidneys) you have to die.
In order for your organs to be transplanted, they have to be removed from your body and transplanted into another person in a short amount of time. Little more than a couple days at most.
You also have to be of reasonable ages to the person, so the size of your organs matches up.
For a transplant to be successful, your blood type needs to perfectly match that of the recipient.
You can't have any diseases that would affect your organs, and you would have to have no immunological diseases, like HIV.
To sum it up, for someone to have a succesful transplant a number of things have to occur all at once without any error;
- Someone has to die.
- That person has to be of matching blood type
- That person has to have no counterproductive diseases
- That person has to have the healthy organ required (This is much more difficult now adays, when heart/liver/bowel/lung/urinary diseases are much much more common than ever before)(The way you die may also affect your organs)
- That person has to be of a suitable age to match you. You can't give a child fully grown adult organs
- The organ being donated has to be removed and transplanted in a short amount of time
There's such a large amount of variables there that even with a large amount of donors, there's no guarantee that someone needing a transplant will be able to have one at that moment in time.
Someone who is absolutely perfect for you has to die at the moment that you need it. And in large countries, like the USA, chances are this person can be living on the other side of the continent. The chances can be especially slim that they'll ever reach you in time.
And even after all that, the recipient's body can still reject the organ, and they'll have to be on immuno-suppresants for the rest of their life.
What's even better is: I'm sure that most people who have signed to have their organs donated after death: are probably selfish starfishs in life, and would never consider actually donating their own organs while they are still living, much less their time or personal possessions.
I'd be less willing to donate organs during life.
I only have a few organs I can ever donate while I am alive. A kidney, pieces of liver, bone marrow, skin. Not much.
And it's possible that during a transplant with a live donor, the donor can get sick too. They can even die.
It's a much, much scarier prospect than donation after death. You have nothing to worry about yourself then.
I don't think I'd donate organs while alive other than to loved ones. And it sounds horrible to say, but it would still be a big ask.
That was a bad idea. I mean I'm happy you are doing this for people but if you do suffer a fatal injury then the doctors won't try as hard to save you or pull the plug quicker.
If that's the case, then they are bad doctors.
Harvesting my organs for someone more likely to die, or even reject the organs is a complete waste when I could live and make full use of them.
It goes against everything that being a Doctor is about.
You treat your main patient first before anyone else.
It's the same way that if there's a problem during childbirth the Doctor's aim is to save the mother rather than the child.
