I’m excited to be posting today because I’ve stumbled upon an idea that I believe will solve multiple problems that have proved intractable up until now.

First, there’s a terrible organ donor shortage that grows worse each year. People are dying needlessly, and I’m getting old enough that I’m fearful that I might be one of them. Considering the damage I’ve done to myself over the past decades, I’m likely to need a full-body transplant before much longer, and that’s not going to happen unless a lot more organs become available.

To begin, we need to make it so that organ donation is an ‘opt-out’ situation rather than ‘opt-in’. Currently, you need to file paperwork to consent to being an organ donor, and preferably to have this stated on your driver’s license, in case something abrupt and unpleasant occurs. This is completely ass-backwards. Research shows that shortly after death, most of us become unconcerned about what happens to our bodies. The default state should be ‘strip me to the bone, and then suck the marrow out’.

Also, according to the Mayo Clinic link above, about a third of consenting organ donors have their wishes over-ridden by relatives. These poor families are in the throes of grief, and shouldn’t be forced to make such important decisions at this juncture. It’s too much of a burden for them. Cut them out of the decision-making loop, I say.

According to this CDC table, about 0.8% of the US population dies each year. Since our population is a bit over 300 million, this is 2.4 million bodies, almost all of which are going to waste.

Let’s admit that many of these won’t be suitable donors, as a result of extreme age, endemic disease states, and so on. A quick glance at the CDC info indicates that probably only a third of the bodies will be usable. However, just this simple change to ‘opt-out’ will provide a massive oversupply of donors.

So, what to do with all those extra bodies, you ask?

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