The “organ donation coordinaters” explained that the tears in Daniella Gallegos’ eyes were just a reaction to some irritant in the air.
It was 2022, and Ms. Gallegos, 38, lay in a coma in an Albuquerque hospital. Told that she would never recover, her relatives had authorized donation of her organs. And so the coordinators went into action.
The tears, though, proved to be only one sign of the unwarranted rush to retrieve her organs.
As a doctor prepared to withdraw life support from Ms. Gallegos, allowing her to stop breathing and meet New Mexico’s definition of “dead” necessary before organ retrieval, Ms. Gallegos’s sister said she saw the patient move. The doctor asked the potential organ donor to blink. She did. Everyone gasped.
Ms. Gallegos made a full recovery and eventually complained to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which, under then-President Biden, initiated an investigation.
Now, the issue has heated up considerably. The Health and Human Services Department has decried systemic issues at a Kentucky organ procurement organization, and a New York Times exposé detailed alleged unconcern for life by some organ procurement personnel.
Some of the stories in the Times’ report are nothing short of shocking. Like that of 32-year-old Alabaman Misty Hawkins, who was pronounced dead based on “circulatory cessation”—her heart’s inability to pump blood unaided. She was removed from life support and prepared for the removal of her vital organs—until, during the operation, her “dead” heart was observed to be beating.
Then there is Anthony Thomas Hoover, a Kentucky man who, in 2021, was similarly declared dead but, about to be removed from life support, showed signs of agitation. Two doctors tasked with removing his organs refused to proceed. According to testimony before a Congressional committee, the case coordinator was overheard calling her supervisor for advice and was told to “find someone else” to complete the organ retrieval.
That didn’t happen, though, and Mr. Hoover remains alive today.
Definitions of death have changed over the years, especially of late, in light of the great demand for organs, which must be “harvested” as quickly as possible to be viable for transplantation.
The most common standard for establishing death employed by medical professionals and “bioethicists” these days is “brain death,” but it can be defined in different ways. Some consider the cessation of electrical activity in the higher brain to meet the criterion; others say that the functioning of the hypothalamus (which helps regulate heart rate and body temperature) and/or the brainstem (which regulates breathing and blood pressure) should be determinative.
Needless to say, even the most electrically dormant brain and brainstem does not mean that a patient isn’t on some level conscious. Electrical activity is measurable, but, in the end, it only measures electrical activity.
A number of major poskim have ruled that cessation of detectable brain function does not constitute death.
But even if the wider world is unconcerned about halachah, it should be deeply concerned about the broad liberties being taken to alleviate the shortage of transplantable organs.
HHS found that about 29% of 351 cases reviewed showed “concerning features.” And Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that “Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying.”
More than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ in the United States. Relying on the declaration of circulatory death (and removal of life support) has greatly increased the number of organs for transplantation. But it has also increased legitimate concern about premature declarations of death.
Even those of us who are not potential vital organ donors should share that concern. Defining death down has myriad repercussions for all citizens. It affects the attitudes of doctors and hospital staffs, not to mention of insurance companies, which will hesitate to cover care for patients legally declared deceased.
The plight of those in need of vital organ transplants is real and heart-wrenching. But people are human beings, not mere repositories of organs.
And even in the quest to save lives, respect for life itself must never be diminished.
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