Categories: Drugs & Medications

The Organ Donation Controversy

If you are an organ donor or are thinking of becoming an organ donor, you may want to rethink your decision. A controversial trend with organ donation and harvesting is on the rise. Doctors are requesting the donor’s organs be removed only minutes after being declared dead, once the heart stops beating. The normal practice before, and dating back to the 1970’s, involved the harvesting of the donor’s organs only after the patient was actually declared brain dead.

The newer practice is being seen as somewhat unethical and is beginning to raise several questions among critics. Some doctors see this practice as surgeons and other doctors virtually hovering over the patient like vultures, waiting for their impending death. They are also afraid that this practice could put unneeded pressure upon family members, where it could coerce the family to either stop much needed treatments or even hurt the care the donor receives in their final days of life.

Even with the speculation of the process in the medical community, this type of organ donation and harvesting is on the rise. The number of cases has nearly doubled since 2003 and according to James Burdock, the lead for organ donation at the Department of Health and Human Services, “It’s starting to go up exponentially.

This certain form of organ donation is being referred to as “donation after cardiac death”, and normally involves patients that have suffered brain damage from an accident or stroke. We have all seen this scenario on various medical television shows where the patient is on a ventilator and the family has to make the decision to discontinue treatment. As soon as the family decides to remove the ventilator the transplant team is waiting nearby to swoop in as soon as the heart stops and remove the organs needed.

Even though the newer practice seems somewhat ethical as well as beneficial to those waiting on the organs that are being harvested, there are groups that think it is somewhat ghoulish. The discussion over organ harvesting practices surfaced in the 90’s when surgeons were able to resurrect what they called a “non-beating heart”. Critics began to think it was unethical and borderline murder. However, after the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine studied the practices, they decided the procedures were ethical as long as they followed a strict list of guidelines. Part of the guidelines stated that surgeons must wait at least five minutes after the heart stops before they can harvest the organs from the patient.

Since the study was completed, more doctors have become more comfortable with the procedure, but not all have decided to get on board with the idea.

“The image this creates is people hovering over the body trying to get organs any way they can,” said Michael A. Grodin, director of Boston University’s Bioethics and Human Rights Program. “There’s a kind of macabre flavor to it.”

“The person is not dead yet,” said Jerry A. Menikoff, an associate professor of law, ethics and medicine at the University of Kansas. “They are going to be dead, but we should be honest and say that we’re starting to remove the organs a few minutes before they meet the legal definition of death.”

After all of the concerns have been voiced and opinions given, there is still no law is in place stating what the wait time for the organs to be harvested must be. Some doctors wait the recommended five minutes while others wait three minutes or even only two minutes. The lowest wait time was reported from the Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado where surgeons state that they only wait 75 seconds to remove the organs from infants. They stated this will help to ensure that the organs can be used and function more properly.

*Sources*
-The Sun News Online. URL: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/16932747.htm . Bob Stein, the Washington Post. (2007Mar19).