Organ Donation
like dew on the tip of a leaf"
To remember me....
"Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.
Give my heart to the person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.
Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he may live to see his grandchildren play.
Give my kidneys to a person who depends upon a machine to exist from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fibre and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
Explore every corner of my brain.
Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat or a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.
Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all my prejudice against my fellow man.
Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God.
If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you.
If you do all I have asked, I will live forever."
Robert Test
(The Living Bank)
The gift of life is possible through organ donation.
Approximately 400 people in New Zealand are waiting for organ transplants right now. Some of them will live long enough to receive one. If everyone who died in New Zealand last week had been able to donate a usable organ, there would no longer be a waiting list.
Living Legacies encourages people to donate organs. Please discuss this with your family and friends, and register your intention on your driver's licence.
The organs that can be transplanted are: heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and kidneys. The tissues that can be donated are: corneas, heart valves, skin and bone. They may help someone else to live a longer or better quality life.
Check out the Organ Donation website for more information.
Donating your body for medical research.
It is possible, in some parts of the country, to donate your whole body for research and teaching purposes. This can obviously help to advance medical science and save money in funeral expenses. It is only available within a certain distance of Auckland and Otago Medical Schools and for more information you need to contact the anatomy departments of those Institutions.
Please consider these options very carefully in consultation with your loved ones, and make your wishes known.