Doctors don't have to tell you or your relatives what they will do to your body during an organ harvest operation because you'll be dead, with no legal rights.
Posted on 03/14/2012 11:55:30 AM PDT by NYer
The last time I renewed my driver's license, the clerk at the DMV asked if she should check me off as an organ donor. I said no. She looked at me and asked again. I said, "No. Just check the box that says, 'I am a heartless, selfish bastard.'"
Becoming an organ donor seems like a win-win situation. Some 3.3 people on the transplant waiting list will have their lives extended by your gift (3.3 is the average yield of solid organs per donor). You're a hero, and at no real cost, apparently.
But what are you giving up when you check the donor box on your license? Your organs, of course—but much more. You're also giving up your right to informed consent. Doctors don't have to tell you or your relatives what they will do to your body during an organ harvest operation because you'll be dead, with no legal rights.
... snip ...
The exam for brain death is simple. A doctor splashes ice water in your ears (to look for shivering in the eyes), pokes your eyes with a cotton swab and checks for any gag reflex, among other rudimentary tests. It takes less time than a standard eye exam. Finally, in what's called the apnea test, the ventilator is disconnected to see if you can breathe unassisted. If not, you are brain dead. (Some or all of the above tests are repeated hours later for confirmation.)
... snip ...
What if there is sound evidence that you are alive after being declared brain dead? In a 1999 article in the peer-reviewed journal Anesthesiology, Gail Van Norman, professor of anesthesiology at University of Washington, reported a case in which a 30-year-old patient with severe head trauma began breathing spontaneously after being declared brain dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“Bring out your dead”
An article worth reading ... ping!
“We’ve come for your liver”.
Isn’t their a countdown between death and when certain organs have to be harvested before their useless?
In Oregon, being a donor means you can be parted out to raise the quality of life of illegal alien child molesters serving prison sentences.
They wouldn’t want my liver! LOL
“In Oregon, being a donor means you can be parted out to raise the quality of life of illegal alien child molesters serving prison sentences.”
I think that may be everywhere. That’s why I stopped.
≤}B^)
Despite a signed organ donor card, in my experience doctors will still consult with family or next of kin before proceeding to harvest the organs, particularly when the patient typically has to be disconnected from a respirator. I will take my chances and donate my organs rather than take the risk of “surviving” on life support for what little might be left of my life.
Wouldn't surprise me. Oregon had a high profile case a number of years ago in which a teen-age girl was denied a heart-lung-liver transplant under the Oregon Health Plan. I'm cool with the rationale that such an operation has a low expectation of success, but don't deny an Oregon citizen a transplant and then turn around and give one of the organs to a scumbag.
I would never, ever sign that card, some doctor is not going to sell parts of my body for his golf trip.
There was a story in the paper years ago about a young black man who was in the hospital. His family visited him and he was fine so they went home. By the time they got there, they got a call that he had died and as he was a donor, his organs were harvested. One of his organs went to a high ranking politician (lt. gov?). The family was shocked as their son was going to be released soon but never got any answers to their many, many questions.
I have never been a donor since.
I was amazed to find out that New Jersey automatically signs you up as an organ donor unless you specifically opt out. I was even more surprised to find out that being an organ donor gives them the right to use your body for just about any purpose, including medical research and training. While they don’t mention Soylent Green, I saw nothing that would rule that out.
I would never, ever sign that card, some doctor is not going to sell parts of my body for his golf trip.
I’ll never forget the first time I had laughing gas at the dentist was right after reading “Coma”, yikes!
I won’t sign it either. I’d want them to know for sure that I’m a goner. Let me lay there for about a week and the bugs start feasting but then it’d be too late for any viable organs. There’s too many stories of doctors rushing the donor’s demise.
I don’t encourage my kids to sign the donor box, but I do. I figure if they are hard up enough to harvest a diseased liver or whatever from a 50 plus year old fart like me, then I’m probably really, actually dead.
That's what I do. I don't ever want an ER Doc, who doesn't know me from Adam, to view me as anything other than a live patient to be treated with maximum effort, and saved if possible. And I'll just state right now, any ER Docs who post to me about how utterly wrong I am about their ethics, I will laugh at you but likely not reply, unless it's an opportunity for me to be rude to you.
That's how I roll.
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