Free Organ & Tissue Archive

It is possible to donate one’s own organs, stems cells, and/or tissue to another person. The donation often occurs after a person has died, but it is possible to donate some organs and tissues while living. Unfortunately, there are wait lists of various lengths depending on the needed body part because too few people are willing to donate.

A donated organ would be quite the gift to receive. I have not received any organs or tissue yet because I have had no need. If I ever do receive any, perhaps I will have to open up a Free Organ & Tissue Archive to celebrate someone else’s generosity and my own continued life. The freedom quotient for such a donation would be quite high.

My intent is to be an organ donor as I will have no need for my body after I die. Hopefully, the medical professionals find something useful in there. If not, then at least I tried to do good for others.

Show Your School Spirit

Upon investigation, I found that this shirt was part of a National Donation Campus Challenge ⇒ run by the Health Resources and Services Administration ⇒ agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ⇒ along with the Donate Life Ohio ⇒ coalition of Ohio state agencies related to organ and tissue donation during the 2009 academic year at various colleges throughout the state of Ohio.

There is an outdated url, do it now ohio dot org slash kent (Archive.org Wayback Machine) ⇒, printed on this shirt. The “/kent” at the end of the url was in reference to Kent State University {Creative Connections Institute & Peak Summer Camps (Purple & Red)} (“KSU”). I am unaware of how KSU, or any other school for that matter, fared in the challenge. I did not directly link to the current version of the site because that domain publishes no real content after being taken over by a search engine optimization marketer.

The reason that this shirt merits its own dossier and is not lumped within the KSU shirt dossier is because this shirt has a clearly different backer that, although trying to associate itself with the university, is not directly of the university. KSU is a state institution that receives money from the real backers of this shirt, which are the U.S. Government and the State of Ohio. I hope no one signed on to donate out of school spirit without realizing that they were only directly benefiting some random bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Ohio.

I feel that organ donation should have been considered too important to sully the reputation of organ donation by using school spirit and passing out promotional material in an attempt to further a cause. These tactics should be left to perennial exploiters of college freshmen such as credit card companies and activist student groups. Fortunately, the challenge in this form was limited to one year.

Heroine Overdose

Heroism requires courage and self-sacrifice. Those that fearlessly do what must be done are rightfully deserving of veneration.

Despite what this shirt would have me believe, however, I do not think that I am a hero by just offering my organs for donation when I die. Donation is self-sacrificial for sure. I am not convinced of that courage is required; all that most do is intend to do the right thing in the future.

I understand that other people might need an extra push. If being called a hero can convince someone make the decision to donate, I am alright with other people having other interpretations of the word. When people are dying on waiting lists for donated organs bold words are acceptable means.