Man with disability at center of organ procurement controversy
September 13th, 2007Donation groups say they walk a fine line, but critics see potential for abuses
From the Washington Post, a feature about the tensions that surround practices for obtaining organs for transplant. At the center of the controversy is the legal case surrounding the death in San Luis Obispo, CA, of Ruben Navarro, a man with a chronic degenerative disease. After nurses raised complaints, prosecutors charged a transplant surgeon with trying to hasten Navarro’s death in order to harvest his organs.
For some doctors, nurses and medical ethicists, the case represents their worst fear. Said one critical care specialist:
“If you promote organ donation too much, people lose sight that it’s a dying patient there. It’s not just a source of organs. It’s a person.”
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