Doesn't anyone carry a donor card in a galaxy far, far, away?

Maybe I missed mention of this in a novel somewhere. Maybe on a cutting room floor back in the late seventies, there's lost footage where they explained this phenomenon. Maybe fans have debated over this riddle many times before. I figure one more time won't hurt.

Can someone explain why there doesn't seem to be any such thing as organ, body tissue, or limb donors in the Star Wars universe? Ever seen or read about a blood transfusion, for that matter? No?

How come they can clone hundreds of thousands of troops from a single human (Ep. II), perform advanced genetic engineering (Ep. II, X-Wing novels), stick a living Twilek brain into a mechanical contruct (Rogue Squadron comics), and replace just about any body part or function with mechanical/cybernetic replacements (Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Ton Phanan), but they can't take a donated body part from a deceased person and transplant it into an injured patient to save their life?

Have medics, healers, and med droids in Lucas' universe become too dependant on bacta and mechanical spare parts that they've lost this technology? Did they ever have it in the first place?

Is there some philisophical objection or religious/cultural taboo against transplants, transfusions and tissue grafts in a galaxy far, far, away?

Discuss!

 

Have you read the Medstar Duology yet? If I remember correctly, they deal with transplants in those books... and the simple answer is that they can grow 100% genetically compatable organs to transplant, and therefore don't need donars of that sort... (I could be wrong though.)

 

No, I hadn't heard of them, much less read them! I'll have to keep my eyes out for those books. Thanks Haggis!

Still...

That doesn't explain why Vader, Luke, and Ton Phanan (from the X-Wing novels) all received cybernetic body part replacements. Ton's excuse was that he was allergic to bacta, so every time he got seriously injured over the years, on went another metal bit.

I could see a field hospital carrying metallic spare body parts for a short-term solution, but these three carried their cybernetics with them for the rest of their lives, rather than eventually having them replaced with living tissue. You would think that if the medics had the technology, these cybernetic recipients would eventually opt for living tissue, wouldn't they?

 

Sometimes cybernetics are better...

Take Luke for example. His hand looks and probably feels just like a normal hand. It operates better though, probably with more dexterity and much more strength. Why not keep it?

 

And limbs removed by a lightsaber cauterize the wound making it really hard to replace with organic parts (I'd imagine since all the nerves, vessels, etc are also seared shut).