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Re: Ethics And Oragn Transplantation

 > The uniform donor card might solve some of the problems
 > involving the family,  but the suspicion could always be
 > raised that the transplant surgeons were too  quick to
 > pronounce irreversible brain death. There is really no way
 > to  separate the emotional aspects from the need for
 > organs.

Yes, you are very right in regards to the family of not being able to separate  
emotions from organ transplantation.  They have the choice to use  
transplantation as a means of dealing with their grief, and are given the  
option to or not to.  No guilt is supposed to be given if they choose not to.  
However, transplant surgeons *do not* pronounce brain death.  It is the  
neurosurgeons who do that, usually two different ones to make sure that brain  
death occurs. There are several things that are involved in brain death that  
must occur first.  Some hospitals also have a neurosurgeon and an internist do  
the test separately and if both come up with the same results, (brain death has  
occurred), and if the person is a good possible organ donor, then the family is  
approached, and they are given the option of donating organs or not.   The  
donor card is a good tool, but the final decision must be made by the family.

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–  
Uucp: …{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!noao!asuvax!stjhmc!280!9!Melanie.Thornton
Internet: Melanie.Thorn…@f9.n280.z1.fidonet.org

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 6:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Re: Ethics And Oragn Transplantation”

  1. admin says:
    September 28, 2009 at 6:22 am

     > The donor card is a
     > good tool, but the final decision must be made by the
     > family.

    In the absence of a donor card, I quite agree.  But if someone has executed a
    donor card, then I do not believe that his or her family should have the power
    to override that decision.

    It seems to me that one should be able to make decisions regarding the
    disposition of one’s remains with some assurance that they will be carried out
    (subject to a strictly medical determination of the suitability of the donation
    at the time of death).

    If one could be said to own anything, it has to be one’s own body.  Why should
    someone else (even one’s family) be given the power to dispose of it in a
    manner inconsistent with one’s own beliefs and decisions?

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    –  
    Uucp: …{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!noao!asuvax!stjhmc!260!335!Bob.Beilstein
    Internet: Bob.Beilst…@f335.n260.z1.fidonet.org

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