Are you an organ donor? Apparently, there's always a need. In fact, a recent news story concerning a patient who has been denied a new heart is making quite a splash. This isn't the first time that someone hasn't qualified as a heart recipient. It's not an uncommon event. However, what makes this story newsworthy is that the patient is being denied because they aren't vaccinated.
I'm not here to debate the hot topic of vaccines. This burning issue, however, made me start thinking about transplants, modern medical treatments, life, and death.
There’s a shortage of hearts, unfortunately. I’m willing to donate mine if it’s worth anything by the time I die. Eventually, scientists will find a way to make heart transplants as common as the elimination of small pox from our lives.
Pig's hearts, growing a heart in a lab, or artificial hearts could soon be in our future. If anybody can do it, it’ll be those bright, dedicated men and women who devote their lives behind the scenes to scientific breakthroughs.
Not everyone will appreciate what they’ve accomplished, however, and some will still refuse to avail themselves of the only true miracles humans will ever witness. That’s ok, too.
Currently, we’re working on extending the average lifespan — again. Scientists doubled it less than 100 years ago. That’s right! We’ve come to expect to live to at least seventy-eight. Most of us will avail ourselves of any medical treatments that show promise. Many will even volunteer to be part of experimental new treatments in hopes of squeezing a few more years out of life.
Thank you to those brave folks.
I sit somewhere in the middle. If it was my kid, I’d welcome almost anything the doctors had to offer. For myself, I’d have to think long and hard first, especially once I reach the average lifespan. I’m getting close.
Life isn’t something I cling tenaciously to any longer, however.
The only time I can remember feeling determined to live as long as possible was when my children were little. I really, really, really wanted to live long enough to raise them.
In my opinion, there’s a downside to living a long time, that is, well beyond the average life expectancy. The danger of outliving my own children terrifies me. Watching all your friends and relatives pass away isn’t terribly uplifting in my opinion. And, although death isn’t something that modern humans like to talk about except in a hushed whisper, it’s as much a part of life as giving birth to a baby.
I like to call this whole messy business the BBB of life — BIRTHING, BEING, and BURYING.
Humans are funny. We celebrate BIRTHING as though it’s a God given right, in some cases even an obligation. After all, we always need soldiers and field hands. We only tolerate the BEING part, however. We're hesitant to allow humans to just BE. Our cultural expectations place great limitations on our BEING-NESS. Nobody is really free to just be who they want. That's simply not the way things are done. If you want to belong to a tribe of any kind, you must conform.
When it comes to the last bit — BURYING — we hate, hate, hate it.
Unfortunately, every time we birth a new life, the individual enters the world with a death certificate stamped on their foreheads. We can't give them the gift of life without also giving them the gift of death. Pretending otherwise is absolutely ridiculous.
Modern humans persistently believe otherwise, however.
In our arrogance, we think we deserve to live as long as possible, even forever. Our scientists keep working diligently toward that end. Before we had any hope of increasing human longevity through science, religion promised everlasting life of another sort.
It seems that no one has ever wanted to die.
We're confused by it all, I think. And, who wouldn't be? Death stalks us even while science promises a new lease on life. One thing I can be rather sure of is that the patient who didn't qualify for a heart wants to live. There may be confusion around the pandemic protocol, but that hasn't altered his desire to live as long as possible.
The inevitable consequences of politicizing a pandemic in a day and age when science, religion, and superstition are literally engaged head-to-head battles with one another are predictable. How that will turn out is pretty predictable, too.
Not qualifying for an organ transplant is just one tiny example.
Until scientists can find a way to produce organs without human donors, however, all we can do is become a donor. Although there is extreme irony in this generous practice. After all, someone must die first in order to donate a heart. One life is given up so another can live a longer life. You have to admit, that feels like we're just breaking even.
The patient in the news wants a chance to live.
He needs a heart. That means someone has to die first. The vaccine refusal is only one of many reasons that a patient might not qualify for a new heart. It doesn't change the facts, however. There aren't enough hearts to go around. Not yet.
Is the patient wrong to refuse the vaccines? Aren't vaccines, like heart transplants, just another way of offering possible longevity?
We live in a world of massive contradictions with almost no way to resolve the conflicts they create. Because with or without a heart, we struggle to make sense of Birthing, Being, and Burying.
I'm still sitting on the fence.