I too refused to check off the box on my driver's license that gives "consent" for organ donation.
I don't oppose all organ donation. But I stopped buying into the donation industry's feel-good slogans about "giving the gift of life" after I found out how such "consent" can be abused.
Did you know that in Washington, D.C., transplant procedures can be initiated on a patient who has NOT designated "consent for donation" on a driver's license, and whose family has NOT yet been contacted?
Washington Post: In D.C., Consent Not Required Before Transplant Preparation When a gas pipe exploded at an Arlington construction site on Nov. 4, Juan Mancia took the brunt of the blast. The 20-year-old's heart stopped while he was being helicoptered to Washington Hospital Center, where he was declared dead upon arrival at 11:36 that morning.
At that moment, Mancia crossed the line from patient to potential organ donor. And at that moment, because of an unusual and controversial District law, surgeons converged on Mancia -- a man who had never consented to organ donation -- and started to prepare his kidneys for transplantation...
--Washington Post,"Demand for Organs Fosters Aggressive Collection Methods: In D.C., Consent Not Required Before Transplant Preparation," 11/24/97 (source)
More about the same patient, Juan Mancia, from "ABC Good Morning America," 11/25/97:
CHARLES GIBSON, Host: A controversial Washington, DC, law on organ donation is in the spotlight following the death of a construction worker.After a man named Juan Mancia (ph) was killed [sic - article does not state whether Mr. Mancia had been found to be brain dead] in an accident, his wife found doctors had performed a surgical procedure to preserve his kidneys for transplantation, even though she had not authorized it, and he had never signed an organ donor card.
Now, Washington's the only place in the country with a law in use that allows doctors to prepare organs for transplantation without the family's consent.
Supporters say it is necessary to increase the supply of desperately needed organs. Critics say the law violates fundamental rights... (source)
This case got publicity only because Mr. Mancia's wife objected to what the doctors had done, and because Mr. Mancia was a foreign national.
In Billings, Montana, a 2-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital, a victim of child abuse.[9)] He was moving and breathing. An attempt was made to intubate him but he resisted too much. He was given a large dose of morphine, but still he resisted too much. Then he was given a large dose of phenobarbital, but he continued resisting too much. Finally, he was paralyzed with pancuronium, which eliminated all resistance to intubation. The criteria for brain death in that community included recording brain waves on two separate occasions. Also, it required that no drugs be present that could interfere with the test. Brain waves were recorded only once and at the time the determination of brain death was made, a therapeutic -level of phenobarbital was still in his blood. He was pronounced dead and taken to the operating room where his kidneys were removed for transplantation.
In Libertyville, Illinois, accident victim who was clinically dead for more than nine hours coughed while preparations were made to remove his kidneys." In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, [13] as they were preparing to take the organs from a man who had suffered a heart attack, someone noticed a blink of his eye. In Nashville, Tennessee, [14] as they prepared to take the liver, the man moved his right foot.
In Harbor City, California, in 1988, a 20-year-old man was found unconscious on the street.([0)] He was taken to an emergency room where he was pronounced brain dead within a few hours. Multiple organs were taken for transplantation, including heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, femur, patella and Achilles tendon. This was done without notification of his relatives and obviously without permission from them or much less the young man himself. Some expressed concern and/or genuine upset by this action. The answer given by some was that it was within the law (the UAGA) to do this. It is within the law of every state for this to occur. Furthermore, the newspaper account stated that cocaine and alcohol were found by tests that were carried out. Both drugs can interfere with brain function and the evaluation of absence of brain function. But questions are moot for this patient after his beating heart has been excised.
More articles:
How Science is Redefining Death
The Nasty Side of Organ Transplanting
And here is a group that is fighting euthanasia that came up in my .wwwanderings, although I have not been able to check out their whole site yet:
I do find it especially coincidental that with zeal they take the organs of a person not even dead to give to a person who WOULD be dead without the organs. Geez, which person has the most value. It is in the eye of the beholder!
Anyone have any links on success rates of the various type of transplants?