More people have signed up to donate a piece of themselves after news that the future Queen of Sweden’s future husband got himself a new kidney. In Daniel’s case, his own living and still breathing father gave away one of his. I suppose the lion’s share of new donors only plan on parting with body parts if their untimely end presents itself.
I’m a self-proclaimed organ donor. That means that I’m not sure if I’m officially registered or if my “living will” would do. That living will is simply the understanding between me and my next-of-kin that I would donate anything anyone was interested in snatching.
I might have checked off a box officiating my donor status when I registered to donate blood. I should check that out. My Massachusetts driver’s license lists me as a donor. I doubt that any Swedish authority would recognize or respect that since, well, it’s not Swedish.
What is Swedish in this case was Victoria’s duty before devotion. Victoria was not at Daniel’s side during the operation. She was away on a research expedition to Greenland to study climate change with her Danish and Norwegian counterparts. I know that a lot goes into the planning and execution of an event like this, but I can’t imagine anyone would have thought it very strange if she had arrived a day late.
I can somewhat imagine that since the donor operation was kept under tight wraps until post-op, any deviance in the princess’s schedule might have drawn attention and encouraged some investigative digging, but the dutiful heir apparent wouldn’t even cut her trip short to return to the side of her recovering prince-in-waiting.
Swedish pragmatism and its perpetual pursuit of emotional restraint can be quite practical and for the most part I admire it. But this time I am a bit amazed that Victoria could ignore her heart to hold a hand in the name of duty to country. And I’m equally perplexed that I haven’t heard much of a public voice debating her decision. It seems people expect the future monarch to put duty before devotion.
I’m glad other people are more focused on selfless acts of medical donations than my own selfish criticism of a woman’s call of duty.
Tags: kidney donation, organ donor, royalty, sweden
I also believe in giving. I’m on the ‘National Bone Marrow Donor List’ in the USA where I also donated blood every two months. I’m not allowed to donate blood here because you have to read and speak Swedish before you can donate blood and I haven’t been here long enough to learn the language fluently. but that’s not what this is about. A couple of days before Daniel’s operation, one big news story was that there’s a severe blood shortage in Sweden and operations were being put on hold. Funny that the operation on the future husband of the future queen was rushed through when it wasn’t life threatening. I wonder how many more serious operations were and still are on hold?
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Do you know what requirements there are to be a registered organ donor in Sweden? I also cannot donate blood because I don’t speak Swedish well enough, but if I die, that shouldn’t matter to take my organs, should it?
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