Death Hastened for Organ Donation?
This is a disturbing story in the Los Angeles Times: A doctor is under investigation for overdosing an organ donor with pain medication to hasten his death in order to procure organs. If so, it is a terrible breach of organ donation ethics and a profound act of wrongdoing.
We should not prejudge the case, of course, although the doctor's lawyer whining that his client wasn't the only one who did things wrong does not give great grounds for confidence. But let us instead look at the bigger picture.
There are many proposals out there to increase the number of transplantable organs. One is presumed consent. The idea is that society will presume that everyone wants to be an organ donor unless the person explicitly opts out in writing. In other words, rather than filling out an organ donation card, you would be a donor unless you filled out a form stating that you do not wish to be a donor.
Presumed consent might work in a medical milieu unequivocally devoted to the sanctity/equality of human life. But we don't have that system. Health care, under the influence of the bioethics movement, is now sometimes practiced under the "quality of life" ethic, in which some patients are presumed to have greater value than others.
This being so, presumed consent would not succeed because patients and their families would reasonably worry that what the doctor in the Times story is suspected of doing would become standard procedure. At the very least, presumed consent could, over time, impact the way that very ill or injured patients--particularly those with head injuries--would be cared in a system in which medical personnel perceived that their patients are prospective organ donors.
We should all want there to be more organ donations, of course. But the only ethical way to get from here to there, in my view, is to increase medicine's devotion to the sanctity/equality of life of all patients. Only then will more people have confidence that their organs will never be perceived as having greater value than their lives.
Post Script: As I published this post, this story was sent to me about a hospital scuffle over the removal of life support from a patient in Singapore, where presumed consent is the law.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:50 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Is there a way to get the Times story without registering? Or perhaps someone could put up some meaty quotations?
I don't think so. But registering is easy.
Oh dear God.... It's like a bad sci-fi movie.
I went to Singapore with the Navy. Holy crow. Oh dear God....
I read it. It sure looks like it's for real. My impression is that it takes a lot to make nurses rebel like that and go to the authorities, as apparently they did here. The only piece of contrary evidence (as the defending lawyer points out) is that the attending doctor was in the room at the time. One would think he would have nixed anything like that to save his own skin. As it is, even though he appears not to have been charged, the relatives could win moogoo bucks in malpractice for his not having stopped this, I should think.
The lawyer should keep his mouth shut, though. For the most part I think he's making it look worse for his client by saying these things to the press.
Over half of the 95,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. Over 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren't willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. LifeSharers has 7,800 members, including over 700 minor children enrolled by their parents.
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