Would you donate your brain for medical research after death?

[muriel_volestrangler]

Poll question: Would you donate your brain for medical research after death?

Background: the Parkinson's Disease Society in the UK is having a campaign to get more people (with or without the disease) to allow their brain to be used for medical research, because there's a shortage. So they've got a few well-known people to say they're doing it, such as Jermey Paxman, one of the most famous news anchors in the UK.

Surprisingly (to me), visitors to The Guardian website are currently voting 84% against donating their brains for research.

What are the feelings here?

[tekisui]

1. If it can be put to use, that's fine, I won't be using it.

[here_is_to_hope]

2. By the time I am done with it...

Yeah, they can have at it.
But I won't be held responsible for what they find.

[azmouse]

3. Science could have any part of me they could use...

after I'm done with my body of course. :)

[SalmonChantedEvening]

4. It'd finally be put it to good use.

;)

[Xipe Totec]

5. No. I don't want anybody to hasten my death just because they need another toy

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

23. Being an organ donor doesn't mean they're going to hasten your death

That's just ignorance.

[Xipe Totec]

25. How can you be so sure?

Mengele was a doctor too...

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

29. And Mengele was a Nazi who practiced Eugenics

Hardly an apt comparison to legitimate doctors.

[Xipe Totec]

32. They are human beings

checkered with good and evil.

A medical degree does not make them saints; it just gives them a license to practice medicine.

The fact of the matter is, I don't want my doctor making triage decisions about my health, based on a calculation of which of other patients may or may not have a better chance of survival if my organs can be harvested.

I do not want him distracted by those kinds of calculations.

If I die, nobody wins.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

55. Personally, I think your view is pretty paranoid

Doctors, while they may make mistakes, are under oath to do what's best for the patient.

[Raine]

50. That's the way I feel too

greed and fame contaminates everything.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

54. What do "greed and fame" have to do with organ donation?

:shrug:

[lunatica]

6. Sure why not... Maybe someone can actually put it to good use

[JuniperLea]

7. In my best Mae West...

I'm thinking of leaving my body to science. Some lucky girl's going to get one heck of a transplant...

[Dead_Parrot]

8. I've been preserving mine with alcohol for years...

...just to make it easier for them.

:beer:

[Solly Mack]

9. They would just laugh at my brain

sniffle sniffle

[bemildred]

10. So medical researchers need more brains? nt

[pansypoo53219]

11. i'm planning on

donating my whole body. RECYCLING!

[ismnotwasm]

12. Yup

Brain and/or body. I won't be using it. My husband has MS and will donate his brain as well. We just hope it won't be necessary for some time.

[merh]

13. sure, it's not like I'll be needing it

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. If my brain, or any other part of my physical anatomy

can be used to learn something, sure

I ain't gonna need it

And my lord I don't believe somebody will come down someday and wake up the dead and guide them up the pearly gates

[Arugula Latte]

15. They can have anything of me that could be put to some use.

[rcrush]

16. They will come for your brain when you are not done with it yet.

You'll see guys in black suits and giant salad tongs coming to your door. RUN

[bigwillq]

17. No.

Don't really know why it's No, but it is. I will be dead so I won't know what the hell is going on but I still say no. Selfish? Maybe. But it's my body and I should be able to decide what they do with it when I am gone.

[Maru Kitteh]

51. Nothing wrong with that at all. You have every right to own your body in death

as we all (should) do in life.


Peace.

[csziggy]

18. My sister donated her brain for research into brain cancer

Why shouldn't I donate my brain for research for another disease? In fact, I'd rather donate my body for research than for organ donation.

[DKRC]

19. Brain to science

all the rest of me to the people who need the parts. I'm 6'1" ~ just think of the burn victims I could be used to patch up while they heal. This body is just a suit of clothes I put on while here. When I'm outta here, why not help others on the way out?
Anything left over my daughter is to cremate & do with as she will.

Poem I found years ago that pretty much sums up my attitude.

I Am Not There

by Mary Elizabeth Frye (1904-2004)


Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight.
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there -- I do not die.

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. Irony..the author lived 100 years, looks like.

[NC_Nurse]

20. i'd much rather donate my body to medical researchers than have some over-

priced cremation or embalming and burial. What a complete rip-off that stuff is. I want my kids to get whatever I have not some funeral parlor!
And the bonus is, it might actually help somebody...cool!

[The Straight Story]

21. I already donated mine, they gave it back though

Seems they did not like abby normal :)

[madokie]

22. My plan is to donate all my body

I just haven't signed the papers yet.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

24. Sure, I'm already an organ donor

I honestly think organ donation should be opt-out, not opt-in. I think it's really selfish to not be an organ donor. I mean, you're not using them anymore, and you can save lives.

[MrSlayer]

26. No, I would prefer to remain intact.

As much as is possible. Not much I can do about it if I fall into a wood chipper or get eaten by jackals or something.

[iris27]

28. If I could designate what it was used for more than just "for research", I would.

But I've seen what medical students do with cadavers while "learning". I watched some of my high school classmates toss a human brain like a football while we were on a field trip to the local med school. I found that horribly disrespectful of that person's donation!

But I'm all for organ donation for transplant.

[rucky]

30. I'm not sure they'd want mine, but what the hell.

[tigereye]

31. I don't know. I'd have to think about it.

I should have known it was you, Muriel! :hi: How are things?

[old mark]

33. If anyone wants it - We both are organ donors, but I really don't know

if they will find anything worthwhile when I'm done with it - I have used it all pretty hard and dented a few things.....

mark

[Ladyhawk]

34. It's already in my will.

I want my brain to be used for depression research.

[DemoTex]

35. No. To many top secrets on my hard drive.

[doctor jazz]

36. Other: I'd donate it to the RNC since they don't have any.

...

[flvegan]

37. Absolutely.

[TahitiNut]

38. Sure. Just plop mine into a jar labeled "Abby Normal."

:evilgrin:

[Duer 157099]

39. ...it's the "after death" part of your question that creeps me out

How many would donate it before death?

[TahitiNut]

41. Living brain donors are a major caucus in the GOP.

:shrug:

[joshcryer]

44. Some people on death row have volunteered, and we'll need them in the future. Bioethics...

...are going to get quite interesting. We need living brains to study. Death row people could well provide us with the information that we couldn't glean otherwise.

[muriel_volestrangler]

46. I didn't want it to be a question of "would anyone be euthanised for this"

though it's clear some people fear that happens with organ donors anyway.

[tammywammy]

40. I'm donating my body to science

That means I could be used in medical school to crash test to plastic surgery continuing education for doctors.

[joshcryer]

42. My brain is getting freeze dried.

Cryonics.

[laststeamtrain]

43. I gave at the office. n/t.

[AnnieBW]

45. I'm donating mine to feed the hungry zombies

Those poor, starving zombies need your brains. Won't you please donate them?

[yurbud]

47. I will give up my ass crack and armpits, that's it.

[canetoad]

48. Not a problem

as long as they agree to put out what's left of me for the bird or insects.

[Raine]

49. No

I don't trust medical research, it's fueled by greed.

[LeftishBrit]

52. Fine with me...

In fact, yesterday evening my Mum told me she'd seen the program about this, and she wants her brain donated when she dies.

Once I'm dead, I won't be needing my brain - it's not as though I'd be walking around and voting Tory because of the lack of it!

[and-justice-for-all]

53. Your dead, they can have what ever they want...who cares...

then toss me in the crematorium and call me done.

[Coventina]

56. My mother died of a rare brain disease. We donated her brain for research.

She was an organ donar, so we know she would have wanted it that way.

I plan on doing the same, if I inherit her disease. Anything I can do after death (what's it to me?) to help the living.