At Least Gary Gilmore Asked to Have His Eyes Donated…
More great news from Britain's National Health Service, which used to be considered a sign of a superior civilization every bit as much as Shakespeare's plays. Turns out that the state has turned body snatcher and has been grifting organs from unwilling donors.
The error, which affected 800,000 people, happened when details concerning the body parts that donors do not want to be removed was deleted from the NHS Organ Donor Register.
Some people specifically request not to have their eyes or heart removed after their death even if they are happy for other tissue to be donated. But these details have been wiped from the records of 812,000 people over the course of the last decade - although the mistake has only just come to light.
And while we're at it, there's never a bad time to check out The Adverts' great ripped-from-the-headlines hit, "Gary Gilmore's Eyes," as timely now as it was 32 years (!) ago:
And for those who need it, here's the Kinks singing "National Health," which suggests more than a few ways to trim medical costs. As did George Harrison at one point, pushing Transcendental Meditation as the best way to slash medical costs. And then there's the Doobie Brothers, who have never met a sickness, disease, or tumor that "the music" couldn't cure.
Indeed, the one unalloyed good about ObamaCare might just be that there is no "listen to the music" mandate, though if Michael McDonald replaces Kathleen Sebelius and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter ever takes over Defense, we're all screwed. And now listen to "The Doctor" and look forward to the day when you go deafer than Helen Keller:
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More great news from Britain's National Health Service, which used to be considered a sign that of superior civilization.
Nick, does that read the way you intended or did it get cut and pastiated.
ANECKTOTAL EVIDENSE!!!
I'm officially starting a rumor that Michael Jackson was secretly an organ donor, and that no less than six people received said organs in the weeks following Jackson's death without knowledge of where they came from.
Ancillary rumors will revolve around an insane uberfan roaming the country killing said recipients to fill his "collection."
Well, plastic parts are presumably quite durable.
What about George's "Tax Man"? Isn't that in Nick's Hall o' Hits?
And don't forget John's "Doctor Robert." Now THERE'S an interesting health care plan.
I said, "Declare the pennies on your eyes"!
For the win! That made me laugh out loud.
It's for the common good. Just think of it as the next step after the inheritance tax.
No love for Jackson Browne and "Doctor My Eyes." No, it wasn't specifically about healthcare or the government, but it would have made for an interesting conceptual segue with "Gary Gilmore's Eyes." (And while we're on the subject, what about "Betty Davis Eyes"? Hah? Hah?)
Hungry Eyes?
The Reason hipsters don't have much love for Jackson Browne. Unfairly I think.
Jealousy. He got to poke Daryl Hannah.
In the eyes?
A word of warning, Nick: the Daily Mail is a sensationalistic, unreliable tabloid. Do some double checking and try to avoid using it as a source next time.
Just saying.
The man from the Daily Mail with his dead refugee
ALL YR PARTZ R BLONG TA US!
I trust you're aware that "Skunk" Baxter does know something about Defense.
Yeah, Skunk has been working with the DOD for years. His post Doobie Brothers career is pretty amazing.
I'd think that Reason.com would be natural allies with the Doobs, if only because of the band's name.
Maybe you're turned off by two-part episode they did on What's Happenin?, which was a "very special episode" on the evils of bootlegging concerts.
That said, would anyone really object to Michael McDonald replacing Kathleen Sebelius? The guy's beard alone would improve things.
The Adverts was a brilliant choice. I think this would have been a better choice for the second song, especially since as a British band, they know about NHS.
The error, which affected 800,000 people
I believe it was Stalin, history's greatest provider of national health care, who said when it affects one person it's an error; when it affects 812,000 people, it's Parkay.
Or something like that.
Never undersood the Doobie Brothers' huge stardom. Their music makes me zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
They're the Matt Welch of rock-n-rool.
Yeah, but frisky girls in the 70s used to love fucking to China Grove.
Train Train by Blackfoot was also a sure bet.
"At Least Gary Gilmore Asked to Have His Eyes Donated..."
Well if you're gonna kill me, then could you at least...?
I consider that a highly qualified donation, sort of like giving a rapist credit for wearing a condom.
Even if what the state did to Gilmore was okay under the circumstances, I don't give the state any credit for that. Gilmore gets the credit for that.
If I had an inclination to deny anyone's request to donate their organs, it would be people who've been executed by the state. How can anything resulting from a state execution be said to have been done willingly?
How is nationalized healthcare like a state execution? I guess we'll argue about that plenty in the future.
But as healthcare becomes increasingly nationalized, I hope that future bureaucrats will continue to respect the distinction between organs donated willingly and unwillingly, but my money's on some future John Yoo giving organ donations the Torture Memo treatment.
All your organ are belong to us.
P.S. Long live the Adverts.
One of my fave YouTube vids of all time is this song, but it's the live version seen here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AH5sE7d47U
Sometimes people forget that punk rock was fun.
Proposals have been floated that consent to organ donation should be presumed, with an opt-out.
Right now, my organs (well, what's left of them) are good to go when I die. If they go this route, I'm opting out.
Unless I'm already in Costa Rica by then, anyway.
Chew, if only you could see what I've seen with your eyes!
NHS has an odd definition of "mistake". There's no way anything on this scale, over such a long period of time, happens by mistake. Either the information was deliberately deleted, or (perhaps worse) it was never entered in the first place.
If a private company had made a "mistake" like this, you would have had "progressives" filling the airwaves with their shrieking and dancing.
To the statist, a mistake by a private actor is "proof" of criminal greed which calls for a lengthy prison sentence. A mistake by a government entity is "proof" that said entity needs a bigger budget.
Organ donation, heavily pushed by major hospitals, is the new cash cow for strapped institutions. They pay nothing for the part, yet bill enormous sums to have it installed.
Kinda like your Volvo dealer.
We should be able to bring our own parts, no questions asked. That's a kidney change we can believe in.