They warn
that changing definition of death will eventually lead to organ harvesting from
disabled
By Gudrun Schultz
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 21, 2007
(LifeSiteNews.com) - Organ harvesting from patients before brain-death has been
declared is a rapidly increasing trend in U. S. hospitals, the Washington Post
reported March 18, alarming doctors and ethicists about the dubious ethics
behind the practice.
Instead of waiting until brain
function ceases and the patient is declared "brain-dead" by medical officials
(itself a questionable practice since there is no universally-accepted
definition of brain-death) surgeons have begun following an approach known as
"donation after cardiac death." Organs are harvested once the heart has stopped
beating and several minutes have passed without the heart spontaneously
re-starting.
"The person is not dead yet," said
Jerry A. Menikoff, an associate professor of law, ethics and medicine at the
University of Kansas. "They are going to be dead, but we should be honest and
say that we're starting to remove the organs a few minutes before they meet the
legal definition of death."
"Non-beating heart" organ
donations have more than doubled since 2003, from 268 to more than 605 in 2006,
and the numbers are continuing to rise. The United Network for Organ Sharing and
the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations now require
all hospitals to evaluate the practice and decide whether or not to adopt
it.
The Alliance for Human Research
Protection issued an alert Sunday warning that the policy is under consideration
by hospitals without allowing for public input.
"The race to catch-up to China's
policy of live vivisection organ removal from prisoners is underway right here
in the US where, the Post reports, the trend is expected to accelerate this
year," the AHRP stated.
"So far as we know, our right to
informed consent--which means the right to say, NO--has been abrogated without
so much as a public hearing!"
While doctors normally wait five
minutes after the heart has stopped before pronouncing death, more and more
doctors are shortening the wait period to maximize the quality of the organs.
Surgeons at the Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado wait only 75 seconds
after infants' hearts stop beating before removing the heart for transplant,
according to the Post. The demand for usable organs is a powerful incentive to
push back the ethical boundaries of harvesting policies, say alarmed physicians.
"A lot of us are not particularly
happy about cutting that line particularly close," said Gail A. Van Norman, an
anesthesiologist and bioethicist at the University of Washington in
Seattle.
"It's worrisome when you stop
thinking of the person who is dying as a patient but rather as a set of organs,
and start thinking more about what's best for the patient in the next room
waiting for the organs."
While the National Academy of
Sciences' Institute of Medicine approved the practice as ethical so long as
strict guidelines are followed, opponents say it is difficult to ensure patients
are not being killed by over-eager harvesting, particularly in pediatric
situations. Van Norman and others said the practice could put pressure on
families to stop care prematurely, especially when doctors and nurses are caring
for both the potential donor and potential recipient.
David Crippen, a University of
Pittsburgh critical-care specialist, told the Post he is concerned the changing
definition of death will eventually lead to organ harvesting from the
disabled.
"Now that we've established that
we're going to take organs from patients who have a prognosis of death but who
do not meet the strict definition of death, might we become more interested in
taking organs from patients who are not dead at all but who are incapacitated or
disabled?"
http://www.righttoliferoch.org/norganharvestingbfdeath.htm
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου