Organ Donation

After watching the second season of Grey's Anatomy the other day, i realised how much people suffer waiting for an organ to replace their damaged one. The pain and agony not only affect the person, but also the people around them. The people who cant bear watching the person they care and love suffer to fight for another day. I've actually thought of being an organ donor a few years back but when i told my parents that if i were brain dead, i would like them to donate my organs. However, they were unresponsive and just brushed off the subject. They told me not to talk nonsense and say these kinda things. I cant really blame them because it's the traditional Asian culture in which they were brought up in. It's the culture where we dont talk about things such as death as we fear it would come true.

However, i'm a child of a modern society and am also a realist. I know each and everyone of us will die one day. The only question is when. One day i could be happily playing football with my friends and the next day i could rupture my Anterior Cruciate Ligament. Oh wait, that already happened. Hahaha. Or one day i could be happily driving to the nearest padang to play football with my friends and the next day i could be in an accident and be left brain dead. Hey, you never know ok. You cant foresee these kinda things.

Anyway, after watching Grey's, i decided to google organ donation to see if there's a website to help me be an organ donor in Malaysia. I found this website Organ Donation in Malaysia to help Malaysians understand more about organ donation right here in Malaysia. There are frequently questions, various religious viewpoints and most importantly a form to be an organ donor. I've already sent my form and i'm currently waiting for my organ donor card. I've informed my family about this and hope they respect my wishes when the time comes. To my friends who know me in real life, if i'm left brain dead, please remind my family that i'm an organ donor ok. Just in case they forgot or have other things in mind. Thank you.

Now, i'll leave you with a poem by an American poet named Robert N. Test.

To Remember Me - I Will Live Forever
Robert N. Test

The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital; busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

Explore every corner of my brain.

Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.

Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weakness and all prejudice against my fellow man.

Give my sins to the devil.

Give my soul to God.

If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.