[T'wit]

It happened last year in my in-law family to a person who had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. I had no say in the matter and could only look on in frustration. Not only was the patient still alive, she* wasn't "brain dead" according to the Harvard Conditions. Brain death includes the brain stem, meaning that a genuinely brain-dead patient must be kept alive on a ventilator. (Even Harvard insisted on that.) In this case, she not only could breathe on her own, she was treatable. But they cut her up anyway... ignoring her specific instructions not to allow organ harvest.

* For privacy, I change the sex of the patient and another detail or two each time I tell this story. This time it's a she :-)

[pinz-n-needlez]

We have become cannibals. :-( We eat our own.

This isn't a pleasant topic to bring up, but the other side are going at it with both barrels.

Thanks for passing along this anecdote, it proves the sad truth that has been seeking expression for a long time.

Pinz

[Wallace T.]

I hope your in-law family will take the hospital and the physicians involved to court if they took your relative's organs in spite of a pre-stated intent not to permit this activity.