Register as an organ donor and ensure life after death - ancient Egyptian-style
The Independent | Tom Peck
Almost everyone would accept an organ if they were offered one â€" yet only 57 per cent of families consent to the donation of their loved one’s organs. Why the selfishness?
One of the few facts schoolchildren tend not to forget about ancient Egypt is that the Pharaohs were buried with their servants. When the big man finally shuffled off to that Great Pyramid in the desert, his devoted attendants would be gently despatched to the afterlife with him, via a gentle whack about the head with a mallet.
In these enlightened times it appears an act of monstrous selfishness and vanity, but the same is happening in this country, every day.
It is only relatively recently that advances in medical science have bestowed upon our organs the power to give life to others once we are done with them, yet most of us still choose to have these squidgy little miracle-workers buried in the earth or obliterated in incinerators.
Only this week, two nine-year-old twin boys in Manchester came home from hospital with a new kidney each, both from the same donor, after waiting just three days. It’s the sort of event that makes you feel overjoyed at the wonder of humanity, but they’re too rare.
Some 7,000 people in Britain are currently waiting for an organ. It’s likely that more than a thousand of them will die before they get one, but the most telling stat is the one that the NHS Blood and Transplant unit is currently quoting as the centrepiece of a new strategy it has launched this morning.
One of the few facts schoolchildren tend not to forget about ancient Egypt is that the Pharaohs were buried with their servants. When the big man finally shuffled off to that Great Pyramid in the desert, his devoted attendants would be gently despatched to the afterlife with him, via a gentle whack about the head with a mallet.
In these enlightened times it appears an act of monstrous selfishness and vanity, but the same is happening in this country, every day.
It is only relatively recently that advances in medical science have bestowed upon our organs the power to give life to others once we are done with them, yet most of us still choose to have these squidgy little miracle-workers buried in the earth or obliterated in incinerators.
Only this week, two nine-year-old twin boys in Manchester came home from hospital with a new kidney each, both from the same donor, after waiting just three days. It’s the sort of event that makes you feel overjoyed at the wonder of humanity, but they’re too rare.
Some 7,000 people in Britain are currently waiting for an organ. It’s likely that more than a thousand of them will die before they get one, but the most telling stat is the one that the NHS Blood and Transplant unit is currently quoting as the centrepiece of a new strategy it has launched this morning.
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"You have the power to SAVE lives."
To register as a donor TODAY
In California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net
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