This is disturbing, to say the least.
The New York Post reports:
The New York Organ Donor Network pressured hospital staffers to declare patients brain dead so their body parts could be harvested — and even hired “coaches” to train staffers how to be more persuasive, a bombshell lawsuit charged yesterday.
The federally funded nonprofit used a “quota” system, and leaned heavily on the next of kin to sign consent forms when patients were not registered as organ donors, the suit charged.
“They’re playing God,” said plaintiff Patrick McMahon, 50, an Air Force combat veteran and nurse practitioner who claims he was fired as a transplant coordinator after just four months for protesting the practice.
The suit alleges that last year a 19-year-old man who’d been injured in a car wreck was still trying to breathe and showed signs of brain activity. But docs declared him brain dead under pressure from donor-network officials, including Director Michael Goldstein, who allegedly said during a conference call: “This kid is dead, you got that?” the suit charged.
Brain dead has clearly become such a subjective diagnosis that it can’t really be called a diagnosis anymore. What they really mean is “they’re better off dead so let’s make it happen.”
The worst part is that occurs under the auspice of doing good for others. Look, I totally understand that if you’re not dead solid locked in on the sacredness of life, everything then becomes a value judgement. Could there be someone who could live a better life with this coma patient’s eyes? Yeah so they think we should make it happen. That’s the problem. If you don’t believe that God made and loves every individual, then it’s all up to you to deliver life and death to those who you think deserve it.
September 26, 2012 at 6:18 pm
No surprise here. 'Brain dead' is a pseudo-diagnosis, invented in part to justify taking vital organs from living (heart beating) patients. See my post here http://ccfather.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/at-what-price.html and others tagged organ donation.
September 26, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Ben Trovato
A family member is a prolife surgeon in the UK he told me THIRTY YEARS ago that transplant surgeons were up to this sort of thing – just not as blatantly.
Best
September 26, 2012 at 7:05 pm
Organ transplants… I don't agree with the practice. We are not made from interchangeable parts. I pitty mom's and dad's who are hoping someone will die so their child can live. And then there are the old geezers with money like our former vice president who can by himself a new heart. Just because we are capeable of something dosent mean it should be done.
September 26, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Even more frightening is that the news media has been ignoring this story. They will decide on what you read. They wouldn't want people to grow consciences about these things.
September 26, 2012 at 11:51 pm
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September 26, 2012 at 11:52 pm
Great. We get the downside of living in Larry Niven's Known Space, without the upside of manned missions to Mercury, Venus, and Pluto in the 1980s or lunar colonies by 2007.
September 27, 2012 at 7:25 am
And that is why I carry a NON_DONOR card with me at all times!
Shalom
Hermann
September 27, 2012 at 6:22 pm
The May 2012 issue of "Discover" magazine had an in-depth article on this subject. Usually, this mag publishes science news at least 2 years before the mainstream media picks it up; however, given the subject, I doubt the MSM will report this. Needless to say, I won't be advocating organ donations.
September 28, 2012 at 1:16 am
When Mr. Smith mentioned this trend several years back, I removed my organ donor status. So did my husband.