My father died when I was sixteen years old. It’s a topic I try to be careful about how I approach. As a kid, people would treat me a little different if they knew that about me, for whatever reason. Maybe because they felt sorry for me. I knew other kids that had experienced tragedy as well, and I honestly think how you carry it says something about you. Some people will constantly bring up their tragedy. Maybe they’re trying to use it for some kind of personal gain. Maybe they want people to feel sorry for them. Maybe they just need to talk about it. I’m really not trying to be judgmental. It did always sort of annoyed me when I felt like people were bringing things like that up out of place, so I try not to do that with my dad. In any case, that windy preface has little to do with what this post is about.
When people die, there’s a tendency to set them on a pedestal. It’s tempting to act like they were perfect people. When I look back honestly, I know my dad had his flaws. He was exceptional in ways, though, too. He was always known as being a generous person, with his time, effort and money. My dad stayed consistent with this perception that I had of him in his death. His final act of generosity was to people he’d never meet, who would never thank him or know exactly who helped them or why. My dad, like many people before him, was an organ donor.
That sounds like such a small, easy, almost trivial thing. And I’ll concede that it’s easy to become an organ donor. I’ll concede that it’s a small requirement for the donor (as far as we know, you’re not going to need those organs after you die). For the person on the receiving end of that donation, I assure you that there’s nothing trivial about being an organ donor.
I have a friend whose father is waiting on a kidney. You probably know someone, too. As of 2002, there were over 50,000 people in the United States on the waiting list for a kidney. So this post, inspired by my father and his, is a call to action. If it’s not against your personal religous beliefs, there’s really not a reason for you not to become an organ donor. It’s very easy to do. It’s also an opportunity to disprove, on some very small level, all those economists and social scientists that say there’s no such thing as altruism.
No one is going to pat you on the back for being an organ donor. No one is going to pay you anything (though I just read a chapter in SuperFreakonomics about how they allow you to sell your organs in India). On the other hand, it’s a chance to do something that helps other people. I don’t claim to know what the point of life is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that had something to do with it. Thanks for reading.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Organ donation is a fantastic thing. I don’t, however, think it proves altruism. The cost of organ donation in risk and resources is virtually 0 – once you are dead, your organs are of no use to you. The only cost is the very minimal effort that it takes to sign up. From this tiny effort, you get personal pride, and the satisfaction in knowing you’re a good person, not to mention the social feedback you receive. If there was a greater cost – say if there was a lot of red tape, or if you were giving away organs while you were still alive – there would be less people doing it. And we see that live organ donors usually give to family or close friends.
That’s the strict definition of altruism. Personally, I think it’s too narrow. I consider it altruism if the only reward they receive is personal – you feel good about helping someone.