There are thousands of readers here, so it is worth a shot. Can you help Michael?
**Update** Not that you need a holiday to do good for people, but I think this is a good time of year to get tested to see if you would be a suitable donor for someone who needs you. Michael is one case but, as you are aware, there are tens of thousands of Michaels. One of the coolest things I have ever done is to put myself on a bone marrow registry. I have a fairly rare blood type, and I figured it would be a great idea. No calls yet, but I’ll go wherever I need to go if that call comes. That would be the coolest gift I could ever give someone.
Dave L
I agree; I’ve been on the registry for almost 10 years. Haven’t had a call yet, but, to paraphrase Milton, they also donate who only register and wait.
Walker
Whoa, it is a good cause, but you linked to a “Day-by-Day” claiming that liberals don’t believe in objective truths. That’s news to me. Does that comic always project like that?
Michael D.
Walker: Captain Ed has DBD at the top of all his pages. Personally, I think the cartoon is the most unfunny ever. But if you scroll down, you will see the post.
Jake
For those of you repulsed by the DBD cartoon and/or Cap’n Ed, a recap:
A 12 year old boy with ESRD needs a kidney. He’s on a waiting list for a cadaver donor and someone CE knows is in the process of testing to see if he is a suitable candidate to be a live donor. (Duh.) If that doesn’t work out they’ll be back to square one.
File under “Got kidney?”
Tim in SF
We in the U.S. have an average five-year wait for transplant organs. In India there is no wait. Zero. None. The reason? India’s organ donation program is opt-out, as opposed to ours, which is opt-in.
We should do that here.
Kynn
I’m glad that the kid’s story was posted by a conservative blogger, because if a liberal blogger did it, the “citizen journalists” of the right would be doubting he’s really sick, Malkin would stalk his family, and Bush would veto his health care.
Michael D.
I didn’t know that. I wish we were more like that here. Make’s a lot of sense.
Jake
In Maryland when you get a learner’s or a driver’s permit you’re automatically placed on “the list.” You have to opt out.
NB: I don’t know if it works the same for people who just get a state ID.
Knocienz
But I hear that there are millions of people who are “pro-life”, certainly they are all registered organ, marrow and blood donors! Why, to do otherwise would mean that they were only pro-life when it didn’t inconvenience them!
Warren Terra
I think all this discussion of opt-in vs. opt-out has to do with use of your mortal remains in the case of your untimely death. To me, offering your organs after you’re done with them seems the least you can do. Nonetheless, barring tragedy for you and yours coupled with a fortunate tissue match, it doesn’t help this Michael fellow.
Getting typed and registered for live donation is a further step; after all, your driver’s license may include donor registration, but the DMV doesn’t know your blood type or immune compatibility.
I gave a blood sample to the bone marrow database a number of years ago through no real merit, because a friend rounded a bunch of us up in the distant hope that one might qualify to donate bone marrow to the cousin of a friend of theirs. I never actually heard what happened to that cousin, but I’m glad I’m in the database in case I one day come up as a match for someone else.
Does anyone know whether the bone marrow database shares its data with people seeking live-donors of other tissues (i.e. kidneys or maybe a lobe of the liver)?