Watching "Future Shock" actually frightened me a little bit. The program brought my attention to something that I had always taken for granted and never actually considered abnormal. Organ transplants.
I have offered up the use of any of my organs upon my death by registering to be an organ donor. There is even a little heart on my license to show that I am registered. I have always admired those who gave up kidneys or various other organs in order to help a friend, family member, or even complete stranger. However, "Future Shock" opened my eyes to how strange and unnatural donating organs actually is.
The program referred to an organ transplant receiver as having a "disposable body."It also describes artificial organs such as the artificial kidney and the impact that they have had on the extension of lives in the past couple decades. While I understand that saving lives and allowing people to live longer is a tremendous accomplishment, I also can't get past the strangeness of equipping bodies with healthier or artificial parts like we are a bunch of robots. It is now normal to be given an extra ten years of life even after you have become sick and at risk of dying by simply getting a new organ to replace one that has crapped out on you.
The world population is growing steadily and increasing the use of resources and amount of waste. China has gone as far as to enforce policies limiting the number of children that its growing population may parent. The policies have fostered discrimination against females, which are the less desirable sex of a new born child due to land distribution laws and inheritance customs [1]. I don't want to sound insensitive because I do understand the difficulties of losing a loved one who could have benefitted from receiving a transplant, but perhaps it would be in the world's best interest to say "no" to new transplant and artificial organ technologies. Who are we to cheat death and lengthen the lives of patients unnaturally? Who knows, it may benefit the world more greatly to limit the use of these technologies and allow nature to regain control and address the growing amount of problems the world is faced with because of the increasing population. "Future Shock" might actually have a point, the modern technologies that we believe are improving society might actually have the ability to "destroy us unless we control it."
1 Chen, Junjie, and Gale Summerfield. 2007. "Gender and rural reforms in China: A case study of population control and land rights policies in northern Liaoning." Feminist Economics13, no. 3/4: 63-92. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 26, 2012).
As an organ donor, I can definitely see your point here. I guess I never thought of things this way, and you're absolutely right...it is really kind of scary to think about what may or may not happen to our bodies when we no longer have a say. I think this is a really great, abstract comparison, and it definitely is getting me to work my brain. Great comparison overall, really.
ReplyDeleteI love the comparison you use here to open people's eyes to organ donation issues, but at the same time I'm not sure I completely agree with your thought on the process of organ donations. In my opinion, I believe you as an organ donor, being already dead shouldn't worry so much about what happens. It is a strange way to think about it but I believe after you are gone you should help in any way you can. On the other hand, I can see where you are coming from because I'm sure organ donors could be treated better during the process. It is a hard topic to think about, especially when it comes to ethics. I really like where you're coming from with elaborating on the world population aspect of the issue. With all of this said, Do you regret being an organ donor?
ReplyDeleteI don't regret being an organ donor at all. I was just reflecting on how I had never really thought about organ transplants the way that "Future Shock" portrayed them. Like you said, I want to be able to help as much as possible after I die. I had just never thought about how strange it is to share organs like we do.
ReplyDeleteI feel like you brought up some great points. I am also an organ donor and felt offended in a way when they called us "disposable bodies." But in the end I feel like that is what we are signed up for; although they could have at least stated it in a less harsh way.
ReplyDeleteOne point that you mentioned was how you feel it is unnatural to donate organs. I feel that donating organs is natural, but I do feel that artificially creating organs is unnatural. Our ability to create organs is an amazing accomplishment but it is contributing to our large population which will need to eventually be controlled if we continue to live as we are.
This really made me think. Organ donation is such a selfless and commendable act, but when does it just get too bizarre to be a viable option? I had no idea that any of these artificial organs were being invented, so it was a tremendous eye opener. Extending lives is a great thing, but when it is artificial and unnatural, there is a price to pay. Hopefully this is a field that becomes more controlled, because playing God is not a good use of technology in my opinion, some might disagree though.
ReplyDelete