the last few days

lml

i was gonna blog something kinda important here, i cant remember what i wanted to talk about. guess the blogger revival's done lol
but also some very interesting stuff from bio class

we got onto the subject of organ donors. 2 questions were asked:

1. what if you're still alive when they take everything out?

:: go ahead, laugh if you will, blanch if you will, but its got a dead... pardon the pun... serious answer: they actually keep your body alive in most cases till they match you up with a donee. like, they keep you on a heart-and-lung machine to keep the organs alive, so according to some definitions, you are alive when they ... gut you. also heard that in the 50s or so, when this was becoming popular, some doctors refused to do the surgery... because when they made the incisions, the "dead body" groaned. really makes you wonder. even though they were "clinically" dead. so we got abit into the question of what defines "dead". braindead is the state of having your higher brain functions- thought, motor control, etc. showing null activity on a brain moniter ekcg whatever the acronym is. however, your 'lower' functions- breathing, heartbeat, reflexes... can still be fully functional. example- you could be breathing and your heart beating on its own, and simply totally unresponsive, and be dead as far as courts and the doctors are concerned. example- terry schaivo. not much needs to be said there, but she was self-sufficiant, almost, and was starved to 'death'- i emphasize that because, according to some doctors, she was dead already. and then here we can get into what constitutes death, and so what defines life, and abortion rights, and stem cell research. but thats the next blog. or after that.

2. what if someone's declared dead, but they're in a deep coma or
something?

hehe. not nice. think about it: you go to bed one night with a headache, or whatever, maybe feeling fine. the next time you wake up its pitch black, and you're in a tiny box, laying on your back, with to air, food, water, nothing at all. you lapsed into a coma while sleeping, so deep you didnt realize time passed, no dreams or higher brain function, and you were declared legally dead, and were buried. when do you wake up? of course. or if you're lucky you'll wake up in the morgue freezer. thats hoping you didnt wake up during the autopsy. gah. in victorian times (18th century), they were prepared for this lol- they built coffins with little holes running through them with the cord for a bell that was above ground of the grave, and they put the other end in the dead person's hand- if you wake up, just pull on the string, and hopefully people will be running to dig you up. ughh. wonder how many kids ran around pulling the cords for kicks lol.

:There are precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities
and so we act as though they don't exist::

oh, btw, nowadays doctors administer anesthesia to the dead people before they take out organs. no more groaning there. then again, i somehow doubt dead peolpe groan, except in hollywood. and so if you're groaning then you can't be dead, eh? so if you aren't dead, then what the hell is that guy with the scalpel doing??

\V/