Books to Spur Conversation about Organ and Tissue Donation
Tis the season for donating your organs and tissue. According to beadonor.ca, "in Ontario, there are over 1,500 people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. This is their only treatment option, and every three days someone will die because they did not get their transplant in time." Suffice to say the choice to donate your organs and/or tissue is commendable but can be a fraught, emotional process based on the circumstances of the donor. In Chris Lynch's novel Pieces 18-year-old Eric deals with the loss of his little brother Duane by meeting recipients of the latter's organs. To his surprise, his budding relationships with his brother's organ recipients helps aid him during the grieving process.
Another great read that speaks to the deep feelings involved in organ donation is The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal. Much as in "Pieces", this novel is about a teen boy, named Simon, who meets his fate in a sudden life-altering accident. The story revolves around the human moments experienced by his paren'ts, doctors, nurses and various ancillary characters.
Another book I wish to recommend is Transplantation Ethics by Robert Veatch, which starts with a history of organ transplantation and then tackles ongoing issues, including competing definitions of what constitutes a dead person/donor, when it is ethical to procure an organ, and allocating organs in a market starved of donors. This book is available at the Toronto Reference Library only.
I hope this post and the books suggested here may help spur if not continue the conversation about organ donation!
7 thoughts on “Books to Spur Conversation about Organ and Tissue Donation”
Great post Abbas, thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention! I’m really inspired by countries that have the opt out organ donation system and I wish Canada would implement it so we can make donation easier for families and improve the donor rate. Great post!
Excellent posting.
It’s actually quite ironic, while being a little overly morbid the authors deserve their credit. In Toronto it’s easy to fathom the type of trendsetting concepts these books deliver as I’m sure they included the involvement of TPS, EMS, FD, local Toronto hospitals and Universities. Running puppy mills, destroying towers, building residential schools, laying pipeline for organic explosives, stealing and promoting propaganda against “Sleeping Homeless People” for medical research, sodomizing children to promote behavioral patterns later in life. Using anologue anti psychotics to incapacitate and debilitate. Lastly dispersing a biological agent at Allen gardens the night before children walked through.
My word.
What a timely post, Abbas!
Thank you
Thank you, Sharuka!
Thanks a lot, Reagan! I have to give credit where it is due; posting about organ and tissue donorship was all your idea. Thanks for giving me the lead on this.