In my experience, some of the people that I have met that aren't organ donors are afraid that the hospitals and doctors will do less to save you if you're in an accident so that they can use all of your organs to "save" many more people. It's dumb, but I've met a scary amount of folks who believe that.
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2026
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It's not entirely unjustified.
A Push for More Organ Transplants Is Putting Donors at Risk
People across the United States have endured rushed or premature attempts to remove their organs. Some were gasping, crying or showing other signs of life ...
A surgeon made an incision in her chest and sawed through her breastbone.
That’s when the doctors discovered her heart was beating. She appeared to be breathing. They were slicing into Ms. Hawkins while she was alive.
There's also the chance you'll get sold to be blown up
Why do they paywall all the fun stuff behind being dead
I consent to this
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I don't want to provide any profit incentive for my death. Same reason life insurance makes me uncomfortable as well. It's not rational.
In some US states, it’s opt out when you get ID or drivers license. I think that’s a better way to go about it
I very much agree. Also, in a lot of places, that indicator on your license is not legally binding, the decision still comes down to your next of kin.
A system where everyone is a donor by default, but can opt out in a low-effort manner such as sending off a signed declaration, would still allow those with a genuine desire not to be donors the ability to do so, but would greatly increase the donor pool by capturing the majority of indifferent people who simply have not made the effort to opt in.
Opt out is fair at a minimum. Driving is the most dangerous thing we do, and if you’re going to do it, there’s an argument to be made that throwing your organ donor chip into the pot is the least you could do, because you could very well cause an accident someday that costs someone their life.
I agree with you, but as someone who does not drive, I still get a state ID with my organ donor status. If the law is opt-out, it would apply for anyone getting an ID, not just drivers.
If driving is the reason to make it opt out, I don’t see why that couldn’t be changed for state ID.
Though really I don’t see a problem with it being opt out for all. Many places do it that way.
I know someone who works in the organ donation industry, and that's what's made me question wanting to be an organ donor more than anything. The dilemma for me boils down to 1. You need to not be dead dead for your organs to be harvested 2. We are not really that good at determining what's good enough dead vs definitely alive but seems dead when time is critical, doctors are busy, and there's people actively pressuring for the transplant to happen.
I don’t even have an organ. Hell I don’t even know how to play one!
I think few people would object to it if they were told it was an option, but the default is "no" in most countries and many people just don't think to opt in.
If you sit down and give the topic all due fair consideration, yes, there’s only one rational conclusion. However a lot of people just don’t want to think about dying, period, and will switch off on anything that makes them do so. I’m sure there are also misinformed people who think their organs can be freely stolen even if they’re not dead yet if they check that box.
I’m not justifying these people, mind you. I’m just describing how it happens. There is no good reason, but there are reasons.
My only problem with organ donation in the US is the recipient gets a huge bill, including $86,000 for the actual liver. The donors family gets nothing.
So if someone gets into an accident and eventually dies, and is a donor, the family gets a massive bill, and the hospital makes $1M from the recipient.
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People are being a bit cynical in the comments, so I’ll share my experience which is a bit different.
I felt an irrational fear when I checked the box to become an organ donor a few years ago.
I rationally knew it was the right thing to do, but it felt bad nonetheless. Nowadays I just no longer think about it.
So my guess is that many people are scared of it, but no one wants to admit that.
Some people such as myself can neither be blood nor organ donors because their bodies are undesirable.
Examples: Cancer, Leukemia, HIV, TB, Leiden V Factor, etc.
People with such issues are often incompatible donors.
That’s definitely not true. When I was waiting for lungs I originally said I only wanted a high quality organ but I got so sick I signed a waiver saying I would take whatever, some things will disqualify you sure but even things like HIV are fine because it’s considered something that can be managed with meds.
That’s definitely not true. some things will disqualify you sure but even things like HIV are fine because it’s considered something that can be managed with meds.
Then you must not live in the USA and have country requirements that are different than the USA:
quote: 'Very few medical conditions permanently disqualify someone from donating. The short list includes active, spreading cancer and certain infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS (with an important exception discussed below), active hepatitis B or C, active tuberculosis, MRSA infections, and prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These conditions pose a direct transmission risk to the recipient that can’t be managed.'
source:
https://scienceinsights.org/who-can-be-an-organ-donor-eligibility-explained/
No I do, I had to agree to it. Granted that was in 2014, absolutely possible they’re trying to ratchet down on it though since keeping organ recipients alive is expensive and often falls on the government I’m sure legislation to make it harder for us to get organs would be cost effective, especially if they weren’t top notch.
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I am an organ donor myself but there are a few different reasons people are not
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superstition and religious beliefs. Some religions are against it.
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a belief that doctors won't try as hard to save them if they can use their organs to save more people
- Opposite of 2, you’ll be in pain longer because they want to keep your organs alive.
My worry that I'm probably going to write into my AD next time I revise it is that they won't anesthetize me enough to soothe whatever dregs are left of my brain into it's good night.
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My dad was an organ donor when his brain died. The next day after the 24 hour period to confirm brain death, I was sitting with my brother and stepmother waiting to have the plug pulled when a lady walked into the room and introduced herself "as part of my father's care team." I don't remember much of what she said because I was focused on waiting for the end and she wasn't wearing scrubs so I didn't really care what she had to say, but she left and after another couple hours I learned that she was from the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) for our State, my dad was a donor, and they weren't pulling the plug until they took him to a different hospital for organ harvesting.
The rest of that day was a blur but my stepmom was pissed, the next morning my dad's body was in the same room, that lady was apparently fired, there was a new guy and gal as well as their boss to talk with us, they told us they weren't going away. Eventually they agreed to perform the harvesting surgery there so we could walk to the OR with him. We were asked if we wanted a "hero walk" where the nurses and doctors take time away from actually helping people to clap for a corpse being walked down the hall, which was the dumbest fucking thing I'd ever heard of.
I wasn't there when my dad's brain died in the middle of the night. I thought I'd be there as his body functions shut down over the course of a half hour, but instead the last I saw of him before he was cremated was his still breathing corpse being pushed down a hallway. I got a text that his heart had stopped a couple hours later.
Across North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin there are only something like 350 organ donations a year because the body needs to be either very fresh and preserved or brain dead to keep the organs intact for harvesting. If you are a donor, it is very unlikely that your organs will actually be donated, but if they are, it can add a whole extra layer of shitty to an already awful situation for the family. Obviously this is just my experience and it's probably unusual for people to be fired so it was probably an especially bad one, but you asked and this is my answer to your question. I'm still not sure if I'm going to be a donor next time I renew my license. I don't think I will until I add a stipulation to my will to allow my family to override it if they feel a need to.
Religion
I know some people fear that they could end up in the hospital with something not life-threatening but the doctors would harvest their organs and kill them.
It's not a rational fear, but people do be thinking that sometimes.
There are religions that forbid it. A lot of people just don’t care either.
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I'm a donor (woe betide whoever gets anything from me) but I totally understand not being OK with it. This guy says we won't need them, but that's unknowable. Maybe there's a bunch of donors at the gate not being let in until the rest of them gets there. But if ever you have a right to claim ownership over anything, it's your body. Your organs aren't collective property others have a right to. You fuck off, these are my organs is a totally reasonable position.
Chronical illnesses. For different reasons, both my wife and I are "unfit" both for organ and blood donations.
To me everyone should be
Have you ever pondered about the logical implications of this way of thinking?
Have you ever pondered about who has the "easiest" access to organs? It's gazillionaires like Bryan Johnson who dream of "immortality" (Death Herself entered the chat: "LOL"). Needless to say, a humble human being like us in need for an organ is very unlikely to afford it than a gazillionaire does, you probably know it.
So imagine if there were some kind of law requiring everybody's organs to be donated: who do you think would benefit from such a law?
Furthermore, this kind of law would inevitably become a fundamentum for a new law in the lines "every person should give birth yearly" so gazillionaires could get plenty of organs to choose from a broader "genetic pool" (sic). And, suddenly, world would become a dystopian, Matrix-like human farm, harvesteable by a few "powerful", a world where biological human existence got reduced, through the force of the corporations-states joint venture, to being born, raised and indoctrinated by the capitalist system for the legally-enforced purposes of working and reproducing yearly, until, say, the wannabe-god Jeff Bezos in his 300th anniversary demands another liver from the "peasantry" because he took too much whiskey during his last weekend's trip to his Blue Origins LEO Stargate Resort and he needs so badly to be alive next week so he can order another round of "mandated peasantry breeding & layoff programme" at Amazon.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not against organ donation, much to the contrary; I'm well aware there are humans in need for organs and, given I don't really care (or at least I want not to care) about the fate of this biological garment I've been compelled to wear, I'd happily give mine away (if my organs were still functional despite my unhealthy habits)... except, of course, to gazillionaires; unfortunately, I wouldn't be physically around to refuse a rich my organs, best I could do as a disembodied dæmonic entity would be haunting to hell their mansions and resorts.
That's why I would ask could I meet the person it is going to? Or ask how old they are or something.
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I don't give a fuck. Take 'em when I go, if you want. I doubt they'll be any good, but recycling's 'in' these days, so ...
I mean.....some organs you do not want. Like my colon. You do NOT want my colon.
Logic says my liver SHOULD be dead by now, but somehow I've had no issues. Sooooooo, maybe give it to an alcoholic? Apperently booze has no impact on my liver. How it survived my 20s, I'll never know.
And my brain??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, sorry. I was just imagining what it would be like if a silverback gorilla decided it wanted to tickle you. Because what are you gonna do? Get tickled by a gorilla, that's what! Oh, also, my brain is weird. Probably don't want anyone being given that.
Freedom of choice, also so people don't murder others for an organ match
I live in a opt-out system. That means we are all donors unless we explicitly said the contrary.
I have never heard of a murder for an organ match.
Also I think we are the top one or two in the world on organ transplants.
I am registered as an organ donor. Recent events and body/organ mismanaging lead me to like to be removed from that pool.
Examples : Someone mom was shoot over in a catapult style to test the strength of a military device, no body was able to be recovered for burial. Not only organs as one think can be used will be harvested, skin and other parts will too. Is all comoditized and the main winners are hospitals and body brokers.yes that's a thing, look it up. I want my family to have closure when that happens not vein part of weird experiments, if I find a way to just hace like the basic organs removed then do the other ceremonies would be much easier to agree.
You can donate your body so they can sell it for what would be life changing money for your family. And on top they'll disrespect your corpse for free.
If they were honest and we got paid I wouldn't even be mad.
As a person who nearly died waiting on a new set of lungs the answers in here are absolutely wild and disappointing for the most part
I've got a family member who has heard tell of folks having their organs harvested while still alive, and that's enough for them to say no. Helps them sleep at night, so fair enough. Your peace of mind has value.
Also I think maybe the catholics are against it? It would fit their whole schtik. Can't day I care enough about what they think to find out though.
While it is the right thing to do, it's the final fuck you from hospital corporations as you still get billed for everything before death, and they bill the recipient >$1M. Organ donation is big money.
It wasn't that long ago that doctors had to go grave robbing at night, risking their careers and freedom, just to be able to get access to the human cadavers needed to advance medical science. Christianity has always had a real problem with people adding or removing things from the human body, even dead bodies, and the effects of that are still echoing all around the western world in many many ways.
You think it's kind of selfish because you're a rational person. The reasons people aren't organ donors are because the thought of surgery makes them squeamish ignoring the fact that you'll be dead and won't feel it, and the other reason is because they think they need to take the organs with them to heaven. It's mostly religious nuts.
I had hep c. Can't be a donar.
It should be opt out, not opt in.
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