Rev. Phil Pinckard on giving life, thought and hope

Random Thoughts on Organ Donation from a Donor’s Dad

Organ donation is a personal choice. This choice is often made in moments of deep personal loss, when families are quite vulnerable. Rather than choosing to keep their loved one’s body to themselves, families willingly share organs, tissue, bone, cornea, usually with strangers whom they may never meet. These are unselfish, humanitarian gifts.

Recipients often say, “Someone had to die so that I could live.” That logic is incorrect. The potential donor was going to die anyway; because his/her family consented, recipients are given another chance to live.

Certainly there is a strong sense of unworthiness among organ transplant recipients. Their feelings are not unlike the sense of unworthiness that any person seeking God may feel when they realize that to be reconciled, a great sacrifice had to be made. This sense of unworthiness causes recipients to say “Someone had to die so that I could live.”

In my experience, donor families hope for the following: that the precious gift they provide will be valued and cherished; that the recipient will value themselves and their donor enough to be medically compliant; that the transplant will be successful long enough to provide a quality of life that the recipient has not enjoyed before transplantation.

Communications and/or contacts between donor families and recipients should be encouraged. It seems beneficial to both the recipient and the donor family to see the results of the gift. In my view, there is an analogy between donation-transplantation and writing. Donor families send their gifts into the unknown; often only the organ recovery agencies, transplant centers, recipients and families know the impact of the gift. Writers send their work out to the reading public. Seldom does a writer know the impact of their work, unless one is C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein, or J. K. Rowling!

The Health Services Resources Administration [HSRA] in cooperation with the National Kidney Foundation sponsors events to encourage donor family-recipient relationships. In even numbered years, the U. S. Transplant Games are held in various cities. In 2008, the U. S. Transplant Games will be held in Pittsburgh, PA. In odd numbers years, the HSRA hosts the National Donor Family Recognition Ceremony and Workshops in Washington, D.C. These events provide opportunities for donor families and recipient families to meet, share stories, bond with one another, remember and value their loved ones. Life happens when families consent to donation. Give life, thought and hope!

Do you have thoughts about advocacy you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.