Donating
Today I donated blood for the first time in about 6 months. The last two times I donated had been bad experiences — nurses missing my relatively big veins, fishing around, me being somewhere between uncomfortable and in pain, and the process taking a lot longer than it should have. I had almost gotten to the point where I wasn’t going to donate anymore — but today I decided to give the Bellevue site, where I have had the best luck overall, another try.
My experience today was very good. The paperwork and screening went quickly, the nurse was very competent, with a perfect stab on the first try, and my blood ran freely — 615 grams in 5 minutes, 5 seconds — not a personal record, but a very good clip considering my two previous took 7:45 and a staggeringly long and uncomfortable 17 minutes.
The lady who screened and stabbed me was nice and very good at her job. When I thanked her for her high level of competence (especially compared to some of her peers!), she humbly deferred thanks to God instead of accepting the well-deserved praise herself.
It was a good enough experience that I am thinking of reconsidering my decision to remove myself as an organ donor (I wouldn’t feel right signing up to have my organs donated to someone who supported the legal system that we have in this state which screws over good people). However, if there are enough people like this nurse out there, maybe its worthwhile.
May 28th, 2009 at 08:55:10 am
Either I am missing something or I find the reasoning at the end of this rather disturbing. You would decide not to save a person’s life because they “supported the legal system that we have in this state which screws over good people”?
Let me analogize this to someone being unable to move in a street and you are capable of saving them from being hit by an oncoming car with little risk to yourself. It seems by this reasoning you should not do so because they may support the legal system that we have in this state which screws over good people.
June 1st, 2009 at 02:09:39 pm
You are not missing anything.
I think of removing my status as an organ donor as a protest. I would be protesting the idea that it is okay for people to take away my freedom for their expediency. I would be showing, in my own little way, that their choices do have consequences that they may not have anticipated.
If moral absolutes can not be used to protect me from populist thieves, why do you think moral absolutes can be used to try to make me feel guilty for not saving the person on the street?