Dead people do some pretty amazing things. Dead people jump out of airplanes, crash cars and further medical science. Parts of cadavers even live on in living patients long after the donor is dead. After reading a book called “Stiff” by Mary Roach, my personal opinions about organ donation and willing your body to science have drastically changed.

The first time organ donation hit home for me was when a girl in the grade above me in high school died in a car accident. She was a young, energetic girl, and her death was an accident and a tragedy. I remember going to her funeral. People were naturally sad, but I remember how proud her parents and family were that she was an organ donor. Because of her, somebody got her eyes and had a chance to see again for the first time in years. Because of her, others got life-saving organs without which they would have surely died. Even though she died tragically, she was able to save lives even in death. It was kind of like being a superhero.

I am an organ donor, and I have been ever since I received my license. My question to all of those out there who aren’t organ donors is: why not? Some people think in all seriousness that as soon as you check that box, if you’re in critical condition the doctors start sizing you up like a prize steer for butchering. That is ridiculous paranoia. Some people don’t want to donate their organs when they die because they have certain religious beliefs and they “might need it” in the afterlife. My response to those people is this: If you really need your own personal liver in the afterlife that you originally received in life, I think the creator of the universe can “hook it up” even if it is in somebody else’s torso.

Other people don’t like the idea of being cut apart and shipped off like meat when they’re gone. I can understand this concern —nobody wants his or her body treated like a Thanksgiving turkey, even if they are dead. But think about the two major alternatives: embalming and cremation. Neither of those two options is as “clean” as you might think. When a mortician prepares your cadaver for the casket, he or she drains your blood, pumps you full of formaldehyde, scoops out your eyeballs and wires your jaw shut — just to name a few of the more pleasant things. And, crematorium workers have documented that the internal abdominal gas pressure in the body can get so high when the body is being burned that the stomach can swell, burst or even cause the corpse to violently “sit up.” So to put it lightly, death isn’t pretty no matter how you look at it. So, why not help save lives along the way?

Organ donation certainly isn’t what it used to be. In the past, patients faced just as many obstacles receiving new kidneys as when they had the old ones because of infection and the possibility of rejecting the donated organ. These days, like many surgeries, the operation takes a minimalist approach using lasers and scopes. Drug therapies and antibiotics have improved, and the rate of organ rejection is much lower, as is that of complications following surgery. The process is routine, life-saving and relatively cost-efficient. If you haven’t signed yourself up as an organ donor, please do. It’s simple, easy and doesn’t cost your family or yourself a penny. Make sure your friends and family know your wishes, as well (you don’t want a Terri Schiavo-esque legal quagmire). It won’t make you any uglier for your open casket, either. The only thing you could donate that might affect your appearance would be your eyes, but they take those out anyway. You can help save a handful of lives and still look just as “pretty” in your casket as anyone else. Except that you might have a slight smile of satisfaction on your face, and no one will be the wiser.