Having an Emerg physician in my immediate family, I have often heard the
term donor-cycle. The reason it is used (as I was told by that one
physician) is that often (sorry, I cannot quantify with a number)
motorcycle accident victims can be kept alive artificially for a
long-enough period to allow for a successful organ removal. In many such
cases, the patients are "brain-dead", but the body is still alive.

Hence the word-play donor-cycles or donor-cyclists.

On this gloomy note,

Cheers to you all!

JM





-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 4:09 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Cc: Mike Palij
Subject: Re: [tips] Passing of an icon

On Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:50:17 -0700, Christopher D. Green wrote:
>Ken Steele wrote:
>> michael sylvester wrote:
>>> We in Daytona are mourning the death of Bruce Rossmeyer.He was 
>>> killed in a motorcycle accident in Wyomng.
>>> Any bikers in Tipsville?
>>
>> Sorry, Mikey, but I have seen too many people that have been either 
>> crippled or killed in motorcycle accidents to have much interest.  
>> Highway speeds are too high; roads are too crowded; and there are too

>> many drivers who are distracted by eating, texting, and other
activities.
>
>That's why they call them donor-cycles.

Although I live near a chapter of the Hell's Angels, I've had little
interest in motorcycles, either riding them or socioculturally. So,
I admit to being somewhat perplexed by the term "donor-cycles".
A quick Google search turns up numerous websites on fertility
and egg-sperm timing and such.

I don't think this was what Chris was referring to though it does
make clear that the phrase "donor-cycles" describes a couple of
different things.  

I did find a website that appears to clarify what Chris meant, though
it does so in a offhand kind of way.  Quoting from it:

|I told White I've heard that cops refer to motorcycles as "donor
cycles." 
|
|"Yeah, that's true," he said. "When you make a motorcycle accident,
it's 
|usually a bad one."

Meaning, I infer, that the motorcyclist has now become an organ donor
if the cyclist hasn't been completely squished.  For more on the dangers
of motorcycling and the source of the quote, see:
http://blogs.chron.com/eastharris/2009/04/they_dont_call_them_donor_cycl
.html

-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]


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