PART V.  DISPOSITION OF YOUR REMAINS

Question 20:  Do you wish to donate your organs
to other persons who need them?

     As we saw in the previous PART, your life-ending decisions
and your plans for organ-donation are closely related.
If you wish to donate whatever organs you now have in your body
that might be useful to others after you are done with them,
you will need to do your best to preserve these organs
by the methods, timing, & place of your death.

     As soon as you and/or your proxies decide to end all curative efforts,
or as soon as you decide on a voluntary death or a merciful death,
you should immediately register yourself as an organ donor.
This will allow the transplant team to consider
which of your organs might be a life-saving gift
for other people who are waiting at home or in other hospital beds.
If some of your organs can save other lives,
different forms of life-support might be required
to preserve your organs in good condition for others.
You might even be transferred to a different hospital,
in order to be nearer the people who receive your donated organs.

     If you take the initiative, this will relieve the hospital staff
of the emotionally-difficult task of asking for your organs.
Sometimes this request is so difficult that it is never completed.
And another set of people die
because they did not get the organs they needed to sustain their lives.

     As you get older, your organs also age with you.
So eventually your organs will be too old for other bodies as well.
But some parts of your body will always be useful to others.
And even if your organs cannot be used for transplant,
your body, whatever its condition,
can still be used for anatomical study by medical and dental students
who need to know first hand how the human body is put together.