Suit alleges that her partner of 18 years and her children were denied access to dying woman in Florida hospital. Due to her organ donation, however, Lisa Marie Pond’s heart survives.
posted by Morrigan on Feb 7, 2009 - 38 comments

Is it time to redefine death? In a recent article in the NEJM, a team of doctors described decreasing the period after cessation of heart function in order to collect donations and increase their viability. This has spiked some debate over the definition of brain death and the "irreversibility" of asystole after removing life support. An introduction to the situation and the arguments. An interesting round table discussion, chaired by Atul Gawande. "The ethically relevant precondition is valid consent...with such consent, there is no harm or wrong done in retrieving vital organs before death, provided that anesthesia is administered." "This means that under current law, it is not possible to procure a transplantable heart after cardiac death. There are two possible ways out of this dilemma. Both involve legal changes." "To what extent should society permit manipulation of an organ donor or alteration of the determination of human death for the good of organ recipients?" Previously [more inside]
posted by shokod on Aug 24, 2008 - 26 comments

Using YouTube to find a bone marrow donor A 26 year old woman is using YouTube to help find a bone marrow donor. If nothing else, take some time to learn a little about matching.
posted by socalsamba on Aug 6, 2008 - 17 comments

40% of Afghan aid returns to donor countries. In today's guardian, it has been reported that 40% of the money promised/delivered to aid Afghan has been spent on "corporate profits and consultancy fees" and that "Much of the money earmarked for aid is diverted to political or military purposes." [more inside]
posted by insatiablehee on Mar 25, 2008 - 23 comments

China is reported to be harvesting organs from Falun Gong members without their consent. Elsewhere, to increase the numbers of donated organs, the organ donation system is opt-out rather than opt-in for the entire population.
posted by DataPacRat on Jul 7, 2006 - 47 comments

Tons of British Food for Katrina Victims to be Incinerated (link to Mirror article)
More red tape embarrassment for the Katrina relief effort. This time, tons of food donated by the UK is set to be incinerated rather than delivered to hungry evacuees. The FDA recalled the food rations, which had been loaded onto trucks and sent out for distribution, because they had been "condemned as unfit for human consumption". Never mind the glaring fact that these are the same food rations being eaten by British soldiers in Iraq right now.
posted by fenriq on Sep 20, 2005 - 82 comments

Man Wants Church Donation Back
A man, in the midst of a serious bout of depression, gives away almost his entire life savings, $126,000, to a local church. He later realizes that this was not the smartest thing to do. He asks the church for the money back. The church, not surprisingly, says they've already spent it and so he can't have it back.
What's next?
Bust out the lawyers!
posted by fenriq on Jan 13, 2004 - 20 comments

McNewsFilter... National Public Radio is announcing today the largest donation in its history, a cash bequest from the will of the late philanthropist Joan Kroc of McDonalds of well over $200 million.
posted by bluedaniel on Nov 6, 2003 - 47 comments

Unmitigated gall. The illegal aliens who got two hearts and two lungs for their daughter REFUSED to have any of her organs donated when it was clear she was brain-dead...
posted by MattD on Feb 22, 2003 - 240 comments

An astonishing bequest of $100 million to Poetry Magazine instantly turns a 4-person literary journal into the wealthiest poetry organization on the planet. The benefactress, Ruth Lilly, has given millions to libraries and medical research labs in the midwest. But poetry has never been showered with such munificence until now. What will this donation achieve beyond ensuring the existence of the journal into perpetuity?
posted by dougb on Nov 18, 2002 - 48 comments

A week before filing for bankruptcy protection, energy giant Enron Corp. donated $100,000 to the Democratic Party committee that helps Senate candidates, campaign finance reports show. Enron has been talked about before, so do people think this is an important sum of money, if not why is CNN covering it?
posted by rhyax on Dec 28, 2001 - 13 comments

"There is a deep hunger in America post-Sept. 11 in many people who feel this is their war in their backyard and they would like to be summoned by the president to do something more than go shopping. If you just look at the amount of money spontaneously donated to victims' families, it's clear that there is a deep reservoir of energy out there that could be channeled to become a real force for American renewal and transformation — and it's not being done." Excellent editorial in today's NY Times (free registration required) by Tom Friedman exhorting Bush to use his currently formidable political capital by calling on Americans to step up and "be the best country, and the best global citizens, we can be."
posted by verdezza on Dec 9, 2001 - 61 comments

The media comes through.. networks actually working together, along with cable companies, as well as Hollywood. Muhammad Ali and Billy Joel just floored me. You can also donate at foodstores and dozens of other easy to get to places, so there are no excuses. I'm still waiting for them to need for physical labor volunteers.
posted by rich on Sep 21, 2001 - 87 comments

Libertyunites.com is a crisis relief site where you can donate directly to the charity of your choice, with no fees or costs...
posted by zerotype on Sep 18, 2001 - 0 comments

GE pledges $10 million to a fund that will assist the families of the firefighters, police officers and emergency rescue personnel who perished while responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. Cisco Systems has made gifts to key relief and support organizations serving the New York City and Washington D.C. areas, including a $6 million donation. Microsoft is making a donation of $10 million in cash and technical services. Know of any other companies that are doing something similar?
posted by riffola on Sep 14, 2001 - 23 comments

Amazon's Red Cross donation page as pointed to by arielmeadow in the big thread. This deserves front page treatment.
posted by NortonDC on Sep 11, 2001 - 15 comments

Give a sheep. That's what Paul Ford did. He also gave us this.
posted by holgate on Jun 18, 2001 - 12 comments

Iraq to Donate $94 Million to Poor Americans Interesting propaganda. But more interestingly - disregarding the donor, would the US ever accept such a donation? (How could we admit a need for charity at home when we send billions in aid abroad?) And what's next? We're not of a mindset to accept foreign meddling. What about UN relief efforts? International peacekeeping forces?
posted by Tubes on Jan 15, 2001 - 14 comments

Donate a Mammogram! My aunt sent me this URL so be nice. =) If you go there and click on the button, a woman gets a free mammogram at no cost to you. Corporate sponsors pay for it. Only one free mammogram donation per person. Sure it's corny but it's for a good cause. Besides, it is every man's sacred duty to do what he can to insure all the world's breasts are in top form. =)
posted by ZachsMind on Jan 6, 2001 - 15 comments

Search Engine Northernlight Donating Ad Revenue to Hospital One of my favorite search engines, Northernlight.com, is doing some benefit work -- during the week of October 14th through October 20th, searches on Northern Light will benefit the Duke Children's Hospital. Pretty cool -- and they're a good search engine, too.
posted by metrocake on Oct 16, 2000 - 2 comments