Why Donate Your Medical Data When You Die?

[Claire.]

Why You Should Donate Your Medical Data When You Die

Most people are aware they can donate their organs when they die. Doing so is very important: Each deceased donor can save several lives if he donates his organs and tissue and they are used for transplantation. Support for organ donation among members of the public is very high—at over 80 percent in some countries, even if many people have not yet gotten around to registering as an organ donor.

But organs aren’t the only thing that you can donate once you’re dead. What about donating your medical data?

Data might not seem important in the way that organs are. People need organs just to stay alive, or to avoid being on dialysis for several hours a day. But medical data are also very valuable—even if they are not going to save someone’s life immediately. Why? Because medical research cannot take place without medical data, and the sad fact is that most people’s medical data are inaccessible for research once they are dead.

Read more: Scientific American

[LV-426]

I'd be okay with it as long as anonymity was absolutely guaranteed.

The world has changed drastically in the last few decades, and the potential for insurance companies using such data to reject people based on potential hereditary conditions, etc. is just too great.

[.ZZ.]

I'm not sure about data, but I never check the box as being an organ donor. I know, I know, I could maybe help others, but it gives me the creeps to think about it. Plus, I'm not sure my used up stuff would help any body.

If they were to compile my medical data it would consist of a very thin pamphlet. I haven't even sought a Dr for a long, long time. (Knocks on wood)

[Claire.]

I've signed a donor card. They can have anything they want as long as I'm for sure dead. I see no point in keeping any of it. As or medical data, it would for sure be helpful, so they can have that too. It wouldn't do them much good now, but after a few more years of living, you never know.

[simplybill]

I donated my entire body to a medical school, and now I carry a card with me so the First Responders know they have to get me into the fridge fast! It's kind of a funny situation because the medical school used to be a Catholic school where I went to kindergarten. I'll have gone full circle, in a way.

Edited February 16, 2017 by simplybill