Organ Blood and Bone Marrow
I was gonna start a thread to ask this exact question, but through the power of search I found this one... Yay! Go Search
Anyway, enough of the drunken ramblings... on to the issue.
I'm down as an organ donor, for any useful part of me that they can find. I Also donate blood every 10 weeks, I asked last time I visited about donating plasma, which you can do every 2 weeks, and they told me that my blood had been designated Phenotype Reserve, and was therefore more valauble as whole blood.... I felt special
But they actually told me about Platelet donations, (platelets are the part of your blood that clot and forms scabs to stop bleeding) which is more valuable still, so I'll probably be signing up for that.
The other donation I'm on the list for is Bone Marrow... I dunno if anyone else is listed for this, but basically you will only ever be called up if you are an exact match (which is a pretty slim chance). If you do get called up there are two different methods of donation, which they use is decided by the doctor.
The first method involves a course of hormones which stimulates Stem Cell growth, then your blood is collected and seperated (like a plasma donation), you get your blood back minus the stem cells, which are pumped into the patients bones. The side effects of this can be pretty nasty apparently, but from reading though it, the worst of it pretty much sounds like a wicked bad comedown... I can handle that.. %)
The second method involves (if your squeamish stop reading now) them going in via your hips, and actually scraping bone marrow from inside your hip and thigh bones. This method doesn't come with the nasty side effects, but does include a general anaesthetic and a whole lot of pain apparently.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm both drunk, and feel quite strongly about this kind of thing. I know it's not for everyone, but if I can offer the chance of saving someones life for temporary unpleaseantness of my own behalf, you'll find me at the hospital