I would like to ask the SRP community its thoughts on organ and blood donations. A bit of history first. My father was genetically predisposed and made some unfortunate lifestyle decisions that necessitated him having a heart transplant four years ago this coming April. I am thankful I still can talk to my dad and tell him I love him, and I'm grateful to the man and his family who unselfishly became an organ donor. I had never given organ donation a thought until the day after my father's operation in which I registered to become an organ donor. Here in Arizona, the donor registery allows one to pick and choose which and whether their organs are used for donation and or research. I chose straight donation. After reading this story:

Death of transplant patient reveals that four in ten lungs come from donors who smoke - Telegraph

I cannot decide if I should remove lung donation from my registery as I have a history of smoking. Not as much now, but I do enjoy the occasional cigarette and smoke cigars with my father-in-law periodically. I know smoking has negative effects all of the body's organs, but I am hoping through positive lifestyle changes I can somehow mitigate those effects. What I find interesting though, when I registered as a donor, there were no questions regarding lifestyle that I recall.

This leads me to the topic of blood donation. My wife is a blood donor, I would like to be, but the Red Cross deems me as a "deferred donor" because I used to be a military dependent who lived in Germany for 5 years between '76 and '81. From the Red Cross' website:

"You were a member of the of the U.S. military, a civilian military employee, or a dependent of a member of the U.S. military who spent a total time of 6 months on or associated with a military base in any of the following areas during the specified time frames

  • From 1980 through 1990 - Belgium, the Netherlands (Holland), or Germany"


This is due to fears of "variant Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (vCJD) which is also a fatal brain disease. Scientists believe that vCJD is Mad Cow Disease that has somehow transferred to humans, possibly through the food chain."


I bring this up because today on the news there was a report about the hospitals here being dangerously low on blood. My blood type makes me a universal donor. I would love to donate, but I can't.

So, I ask for your thoughts and opinions, if it were you or a loved one, would you be willing to receive an organ or blood donation from someone like me who might have had a checkered past when it comes to smoking or living in Europe during a certain time period if it could save and prolong your's or a loved one's life, if only for alittle while longer? Thank-you for taking the time to read this post.