Should brain dead patients be kept alive for organ donation?

I started to give blood regularly when the service came to the college where I was training. I asked one man friend why he did not donate and he said he 'didn't like anything like that' - his wife had received several pints after a miscarriage.

I used to be a regular blood donor until I was told that as I had had transfusions after each DD's birth (C section) before 1982, I was no longer a suitable donor. I assume this is to do with HIV testing or maybe Hep C?
Shame really as I was quite happy to toddle along to the mobile unit every time it came and sort of think that as we as a family have benefited form organ and blood donation, well, what goes around comes around.
There have been some moving stories on this thread and I have found them a source of comfort as sometimes you feel you are the only person to be in this situation. What I do know, but prefer to "park" at the back of my mind, is that DH with his heath issues will not be a suitable candidate for a second transplant when his illness reaches that point, as it will. But as none of us knows when that time will be, we will just cross bridges when we come to them.

There was a lot of anxiety about HIV and also mad cow at one stage. I remember going to give blood once and reading the list and thinking OMG. Bale out time! It was things like ever been to bed with someone who ever been to Africa or had any partners that had ever had a moment of doubt about their sexuality...
Later I had breast cancer so they did not want my blood. ALthough this is not on the hugely long list - see link. So maybe after all this time I could...
My DH was told more recently though, that having had a malignant mole removed he will never be acceptable as a donor. He was miffed. It was his opportunity to be a hero.
www.blood.co.uk/can-i-give-blood/who-cant-give-blood/

I've given blood since 1976 and have clocked up about 60 donations, but unfortunately, now that I have to come back on public transport afterwards, it's not so easy. I've found that I've started to feel a bit groggy afterwards! If donations could be given here in the village, it would be no problem.

Having had blood transfusions on a number of occasions, both before and since 1980, I appear to be ineligible as a donor. When I did try, many years ago and before there were so many restrictions, my haemoglobin count was too low for donating blood to be healthy for me. I tried lots of times – strong sense of payback – but the count is naturally low and does not change with iron pills. My late father, also thinking of payback for the saving of my life, did donate blood but it made him very woozy so he couldn't do it often.

Hey green Respect! You are a hero of blood donation.

Thank you green on behalf of those of us who have needed blood transfusions. My dad had a rare blood group (AB negative) and gave blood for most of his adult life. I can't give blood as had rather a lot myself and apart from having scaredy cat veins that disappear at the sight of a needle, I am ineligible.

I've been lucky enough never to have needed a blood transfusion - and my blood is dead common (O positive). Maybe more would need it because of that reason, though.

greenmossgiel A brilliant achievement well done! O positive is the most common blood group and can be given to most other groups but O positives can only have transfusions from their own blood type. So I believe. I hope some one will correct me if I'm wrong.

Wrong way round. O neg universal doner

Thanks jeni

I started out giving blood when all they asked about was jaundice and malaria but sometime in the 80s when the HIV problem started they added allergies to the list. I am allergic to penicillin and as soon as I told them this I was offered a cup of tea and ushered to the door without donating. It seems they do not worry about food allergies but do worry drug allergies incase the person receiving the blood is asol receiving the drug to which the donor is allergic.

DD tried to become a blood donor recently but after one donation was then told not to come back because her veins are so deeply embedded in her arm that they are very difficult to find and she ends up with an arm like a pincushion. DH has the same problem so it is obviously an inherited characteristic. During a recent stay in hospital they put extra shunts in her arm because of the difficulties finding her veins for regular blood tests

I had that problem too, and I had to keep clenching and unclenching my fist to pump the blood. Talk about getting blood out of a stone!

My concern is that if organ donation is used widely it could inhibit the research on stem cells which ultimately should be able to grow new organs from a person's stem cells. It is a very emotional subject as I have known people desperately waiting for an organ so that their lives can continue longer. I'm all for being on an organ donor list but hesitate about keeping people alive for that purpose.