The Ugly Organs

This morning while driving to work listening to The Kevin & Bean Show as I have for over ten years, Bean began his morbid but generally amusing routine known as Bean's Death Corner. Just last month Bean told the story of Phil Contos who was riding his motorcycle in a protest ride against helmet laws when he crashed and died after landing on his head. The stories told in Bean's Death Corner are generally of that variety which you're likely to read about on the Darwin Awards website.

However, at the end of this morning's segment Bean said he had a story about an organ donation gone awry that he couldn't tell on the air but had posted online. As an inactive organ donation activist my heart immediately sank. I've had countless arguments with people who were against donating their organs and it usually had to do with some ridiculous urban myth about doctors being quicker to let an organ donor die. I was terrified that Gene 'Bean' Baxter was adding fuel to the already raging fire.


So, it might not surprise you that when I read the terribly sad story of Mumpy Sarkar I was somewhat relieved. The 12-year-old girl from India had overheard that her dad wouldn't have his vision restored without an eye transplant and her brother wouldn't live without a kidney transplant. While her father was at work and her mother was getting rice, Mumpy consumed a lethal amount of pesticide. It was a truly selfless and beautiful gesture that unfortunately went unnoticed initially as her suicide note with the wishes that her organs be used to help her family wasn't discovered until the day after her body had been cremated.

This story is heartbreaking and might remind some people of the opening scene to Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece Magnolia. Unfortunately this is not fiction but rather an all too familiar story of another family tormented by illness the lack of available organs.


According to the U.S. Census Bureau the United States population is approximately 307,000,000 and based on the information listed on Organdonor.gov the number of organ donors in the United States is 86,000,000. At first glance that might seem like an impressive ratio but it's actually 28%. This would mean that the odds are if you are an organ donor in an elevator with three other people the statistics would tell you the other three aren't organ donors. As of 2009, the number of people on the transplant waiting list was over 100,000 but the number of available donors was less than 15,000.

I thought about writing this without giving my personal opinion and letting the facts speak for themselves but I decided against it. Every day 18 people die while waiting for the transplant of a vital organ. I'll write that again but it is worth repeating:  Every day 18 people die while waiting for the transplant of a vital organ. A person who is against donating organs for a personal or religious reason is cold, selfish, ignorant and the antithesis of Mumpy Sarkar who was willing to sacrifice her own life in an effort to save her father and brother.


No one is asking you to take your own life. Whether you believe that after your death you'll go to heaven or hell, be reincarnated, or simply enter the ground, there is no need for your organs after you're dead. Even if you use alcohol or smoke cigarettes, don't decide if your organs can be used and let a physician make that decision.


I firmly believe that if you're financially able to donate to a non-profit organization or charitable cause then you should no matter the amount but donating an organ is the one thing that doesn't cost you any money and could very well save a life.