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:
Interesting and alarming that according to your source, it is legal in "every state" to remove organs for transplantation without permission from the either the donor or his/her family!
From your source:
[Removal of the young man's organs] 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.
(I take it that "UAGA" is the "Uniform Anatomical Gift Act," though I haven't researched that "Act" yet.)
This would seem to contradict the sources I posted --that only in the District of Columbia were such practices legal, at least as of 1997. The incident you quoted took place in 1988.