My friend wants to donate his organs after he dies.

[bEvans]

How would one go about doing this? The state is New Jersey, but he's a minor and isn't sure about how to go about conceding his organs after he dies.
Of course I'm trying to prevent him from killing himself, and I'll continue to call the cops on him, but, if he does manage to sneak by and do it, how will he get approved for donation?
Should it be written on the note?
thank you

 

[TheBLA]

I think right now, you should just worry about trying to save his life instead of thinking about this right now, donate all your resources to saving his life because once he dies, he will never come back, but if he dies, you will have lots of time to think about where his organs would go.

This is far far far more important and URGENT than where his organs will go after he dies! I suggest you put all of your resources right now towards helping him from harming himself okay? Don't get distracted by anything else. You seem to be acting as though he really will commit suicide very soon and there is no way to stop it.

 

[worlds edge]

I'm under the impression that most forms of suicide put such stress on the body and its organs that none of them are ultimately suitable for donation. Maybe for research, but that's a different matter.

Can't remember where I read about this or exactly why this is the case, but if your friend is looking for some weird rationalization for suicide he should at least be aware that this is a likely possibility.

And if your friend is a young minor, say under 15, I doubt he would be able to control the dispostion of his body anyway. Most states allow you to elect to be an organ donor on your driver's license, but I'm not sure to what extent the executor of an estate could overrule this, especially if the deceased is under 18. And you have to be 16 to do this anyway.

 

[thecleric]

Just to reiterate what others have said, this isn't a practical possibility for several reasons:

1. Organs need to be harvested extremely quickly (minutes) after death to be of any use. As a result, they're rarely harvested from people who aren't just brain dead, since the brain dead have a beating heart to keep the other organs going. Very few methods of suicide are likely to produce brain death without also producing regular old death.

2. Minors can't make living wills. Any decision regarding organ donation would have to be made by the minor's parents or legal guardian.

(And BTW, the driving age in NJ is 17, not 16.)