I know this subject has been discussed before but if there is anyone out there who hasn't signed up for organ donation and is thinking about it, please watch this ITN video of my dear and special friend Emily, thanks.
http://www.itn.co.uk/ - click on 'a transplant patient's plea'

Jax

i'm a donor-organ and bone marrow. They can have any part of me they want when i'm dead-its not as if i'm going to need them anymore!

My mother donated her whole body to medical science. They will donate any part that is viable. I have told my children that I want to do the same if possible. The only thing that bothers them is the wait of 18 months or so for the remains to be released to the family. :(

I do admire your Mother, and indeed you and the rest of your family :)  Did she discuss and take into account your feelings before committing to it?  Did you have a service when her body was returned?  I would imagine that that would quite comforting to gather again and reflect on her life and self sacrifice :)  I must admit, despite have a close friend, our best man, alive and well today thanks to a kidney transplant I find it difficult to contemplate donation as I believe that God made us as a whole so for me the prospect of medical advancement that will negate the need for organ transplants is the hope for the future and, of course, it is people like your Mother that will help achieve this :)

So far as I am concerned, once I have shuffled off this mortal coil -they can use any part of me that is of any use to anyone .......probably no-one - so - if medical science wants what's left of me - they are welcome to it - otherwise - plant me in a green cemetry (seeing as it will upset too many people if they throw me on the compost heap :rolleyes:).

The essential part of ME will, I hope, live on in those I have loved - whilst someone can talk lovingly of me, then I am still alive :)

Margot

If the God I believe in, cannot accept that any part of my earthly body can be sacrificed for someone else to live a better life on earth - then why do I bother believing in him????

Trust in God ......but keep your powder dry!!!!

Margot ;)

I saw a sign in a Dutch hospital and thought it was rather appropriate  "Don't take your organs to heaven .......................................... heaven knows we need them here." :)

Medical advancement *may* negate the need for organ transplantation, but it hasn't yet. I don't believe in God, but if He exists I cannot imagine Him finding resurrection a problem because of a missing kidney or whatever. I have left my body not just for transplant but for medical science (read dissection). That is partly because I know what happens to dissected bodies (though not always pleasant), and have dissected one myself, and partly because I can only see due to a corneal graft. If the God I don't believe in does exist, I can't imagine that He would object to giving someone else life or even sight - or even training for those who will be bound to help life in  the future.

It is nothing to do with the resurrection which I'm sure will not be a problem if something is missing or replaced :) 

Then why would you object to your remains being used on the basis that 'God made us whole'? Serious question - not being argumentative, just don't understand. :)

I don't object .....if God made ME whole, then he made my neighbour whole too...... ;)

Margot

Just that, I believe that He did not make us as a conglomeration of parts but a whole in His image.  I can't imagine what He thinks any more than you can..........if you believed in Him ;) it's just a question of whether He would want us to chops and change them between individuals.  I did not say I objected to transplantation I just find it difficult to contemplate because of my beliefs.

My husband is under strict instructions to allow them to take anything of me that is of use - at least that way I won't get buried alive :D

I don't believe in God, but didnt he give bread and wine as part of him? 

Have to say that I am OK with most parts being taken from me but strangely enough want my eyes to be left alone.  Really weird I know but I don't want them messing about with :d

>I don't believe in God, but didnt he give bread and wine as part of him? 

Somehow I think the transplant surgeons will wonder what to do with that ;)

In ways your eyes are the most useful part of you. They can be put to a multitude of uses from corneal transplantation which gives the blind sight, to the sclera which can be used to rebuild eyelids which have been damaged by injury or are abnormal due to congenital abnormality. The good thing about donating your eyes is that the tissue from older people can be used when their other organs are no longer useful. Surgeons are trained to remove the eyes leaving the body looking actually better than it was before. The removal process is simple and the entire eye is used. I speak as some one who has both removed eyes for transplantation, and has benefited for corneal graft, so you must forgive me if I'm an enthusiast. :)

Some people are being buried with their mobiles now, I understand :)

:d :d  WHY???

just in case they get buried alive ;) :D

i have been an organ donor since i was 10, i dont need my body when im gone, so others can benifit from it.

tanya

I heard that there is a syndrome that makes you seem as if you are dead and when they have dug people up they have found claw marks on the back of the coffin lid! Awful. Good Idea about the mobile phone - may suggest that when I go!

If He is a God of mercy, then I think he would appreciate any small sacrifice (and there is a small sacrifice in giving your body away I think) that prevents or even delays suffering to another individual / family. I was brought up Presbyterian - all predestination that the individual could not change. I rejected that early, but if my fate *is* predestined, then giving away my mortal body would make no difference. Had I been brought up , say, Catholic, where one could influence God through the way one lives, I still think He would appreciate a kidney given to a sick person with a life and family in front of them, or even a pickled corpse for a medical student to learn on. But Faith is such an individual thing that I don't want to argue - though I remain genuinely curious as to what beliefs in a Christian God could be at odds with organ donation.

>what beliefs in a Christian God could be at odds with organ donation.

The one that we are not created as just a group of parts :)
You may be right about what He thinks but as neither or us knows for sure we can each continue with our own beliefs on the subject :)