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FROM MY CORNER: Livers, Bodies, and More

Howell Hurst American News, Humans, People, People Politics

A recent ad in Time magazine had the following headline:

“20% of people waiting for a liver transplant die waiting.”

I wonder how many millions of dollars are spent on expensive caskets to insure one’s body is exalted in death and preserved as long as possible against its inevitable and unpreventable eventual decay, when donating it would save the lives of every one of those 20%?

We are undoubtedly an ego-driven people, obsessing about ourselves even unto our deaths. Have you ever simply considered how unlikely it was that you and I have arrived here among the millions, who by evolutionary happenstance ended up being live creatures on this tiny planet in this limitless universe?

My anxiety is that the government bureaucracies involved in actually delivering my long-ago-already-donated body to a medical hospital, where it can be put to valuable use training a doctor or saving some doomed person, may botch the deal, or some profit-obsessed institution will do so while counting their profits.

It is such an incredible wonder that we are even here at all on this planet. How come  we are so self-centered that we allow our families to invest thousands of dollars burying us in splendor, when others could be saved by our act of giving?

Being a part of the human race is such an amazing experience of nature. We could easily have been each one of those trillions of potential people who never actually made it to human life, but instead remained a speck of energy in the immensity of the infinite.

I sincerely hope more of us discover that giving our bodies to the future of humanity is the least we can do to justify our having been lucky enough to be here.

Time’s ad for an institution, whose logo is “HPMC, Life Changing Medicine,” brought this commentary to my mind. The closing of the ad states: “Get the facts at LifeChangingLiver.com, 1-877-700-LDLT.”

Why don’t you call them and see if your body is more valuable to someone else rather than spending a small fortune on your burial? You may be worth more than you think.

Until next time,

Hal

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One comment on “FROM MY CORNER: Livers, Bodies, and More

  1. My husband and I are going, whole body donation, to Anatomy Board of Maryland or, if we die outside of the state, to MedCure, headquartered in Oregon but with branches all over.

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