8 years ago
1
We should harvest organs before a donor dies
A previously healthy middle-aged man has suffered a massive stroke from a ruptured artery in his brain and fallen into a persistent, then permanent, coma. Now imagine that before the stroke our hypothetical patient had expressed a wish to donate his organs after his death. If neurologists could determine that the patient had no chance of recovery, then would that patient really be harmed if transplant surgeons removed life-support, such as ventilators and feeding tubes, and took his organs...
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The thing is that doing this will stop voluntary organ donation cold. That's just reality, if people even suspect that a patient isn't dead when they take the organs, they'll think that it's murder or at least neglecting to treat aggressively so as to get the organs. And they'll stop donating because they don't want to take that risk.