anyone signed on to be an organ donor? my wife and i are. I wonder how they handle that. I am 75 so I don't know if they will use any of my organs, but was just curious as to what happens in that situation. anyone know of any cremation services in northeast iowa?
I am an organ donor, whole body donor, and currently plan to be cremated.
In my state, one can indicate on one's driver's license that one is an organ donor. However, when the actual time comes for organ harvesting, I believe the decision for that is made by whomever is making the medical decisions for you. In an ideal case, this would be whomever is named in your medical POA, living will, etc.
Generally one cannot be both an organ donor and a whole body donor. The whole body places (typically medical schools) want the entire body for study, and organ donation messes with that (although cornea donation is allowed I think).
It's up to the individual to assess whether they might provide more value via organ donation or whole body donation. When I asked this question of the whole body people, they said age 75 was a good cutoff - below that age and your organs are probably good enough to be donated; over that age there might be health problems that would make organ donation not as useful but whole body would still be helpful.
So that's more or less what my detailed instructions to my executor say in my letter of instruction:
1. Organ donation if under age 75.
2. Whole body if 75 or over and possible given the circumstances of my death.
3. Cremate whatever's left.
I believe the whole body places will cremate your body - for free - after they're done using it. This would make sense in the case of a medical school or similar, as your body probably can't be put back into reasonable viewing shape. Also, there is a significant time lag - I think the cremains show up back to the family about two years after death.
I don't know of any cremation services in Iowa, but Google does:
https://www.google.com/search?q=cremation+services+in+northeast+iowa