Gemma - I too give these talks - hope some of these help - please contact me
directly if you would like copies of some of my notes - Good Luck!

Arguments against cadaveric donation (off top of my head)

Belief that life support may be switched off before absolutely necessary
(not true by the way)

Defiling body - if particular religion believes 'body and soul' go onto
'another place', then by removing part of the body we somehow interfere with
this process.

Many people are bothered by removal of cornea (eye) - deemed to be
quintessential part of a person's personality and being. Almost everyone to
whom I have spoken is squeemish about this concept (including medical
students and experienced nurses)

Many people hold the view (cruelly) that the donation/transplant program is
somehow interfering with Darwin's 'Survival of the fittest' theory. ie that
the weakest should be left to die out in order to keep the 'fittest' left to
procreate.

Expense - both in terms of cost of treatment and of Benefit payments to
those who never manage to return to work (and by definition then contribute
to the Health budget rather than drain it)

Public are not aware of the actual process involved in removing
organs/tissue for donation process, and have only Frankenstein-ien films as
term of reference ('though the original version of Frankenstein (Shelly)
was, ironically, not a horror story)

There is an uneasiness felt in the concept that an organ recipient MAY
inherit personality traits from donor (Media scare stories I guess -
although see point immediately below - psycholigical problems CAN
precipitate this very real belief)

Recipients themselves may also develop psychological problems - ie if they
discover that their transplanted organ was donated by the family of a child.

Some negative Issues surrounding Live donation

How would donor feel if transplant was not successful?

How would recipient feel if donor developed serious health problems later in
life - (and not only renal problems). ie how would recipient feel if
donor's only remaining kidney failed and donor had to dialyse?

Would recipient possibly feel permanently indebted to donor (ie - if I had
accepted 'gift' from my mother how would our relationship change if I felt I
could no longer argue with her etc etc)

What if another member of family develops renal failure (ie what if mother
of renal patient donates and then another of her children develops renal
failure and no other family member is suitable donor)

And on and on and on..... sorry but you did ask for the negatives - and in
my experience these are the main areas of concern I have tackled in talks so
far.....

I would be interested to know how you fare!

Best of Luck - Deborah

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gemma Chaloner" <TheDancer@...>
To: <BODY-UK@egroups.com>
Sent: 25 October 2000 19:35
Subject: [BODY-UK] HELP NEEDED


> Hi everyone next week i have to give a talk at school on organ donation. I
> present it as an argument with arguments for and arguments against. I was
> wondering if any1 could give me some reasons for it and also against it. I
> seem to have found lots for but hardly any against. I was wondering if you
> could tell me the religions whihc are against it. Is is the johavhs
> witnesses
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Love from
>
> Gemma chaloner
>
>
>
>
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