Organ donations can save lives, but John Oliver let viewers know this week that the entire system is a huge mess filled with errors, wasted opportunities, racism and more.
The “Last Week Tonight” host also showed how wealthy people can game the system to cut the line, while thousands of others literally die waiting.
What’s more, lax regulations mean that bodies and body parts may be used in ways the donors never envisioned, intended or approved of.
Oliver spotted one museum that has skeletons of people who donated their bodies “to science” arranged in unusual ways.
“When most people think about donating their body to science, they picture it in a reputable educational institution, not in some roadside bone collection, face down, ass up, arranged in a formation best described as ‘Cirque du Soleil performer’s favorite sex position,’” he said on Sunday night.
In another case, he found that a body donated for medical research and education was used for a pay-per-view live autopsy event held in a hotel conference room.
“Medical ‘research and education’ is not clearly defined,” he said. “That can technically mean that your body might be carved up in a Marriott for the entertainment of a grown man in a fedora.”
Oliver said organ and body donations are crucial, and that he will donate his own “subpar organs” when he dies.
“We all know donating organs saves lives, and giving your body to science can save and enhance them too,” he said. “But what we currently do with those gifts is broken.”
See his full explanation ― including changes that could help improve the system ― below:
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