Or this, or this, and certainly not this.
It's too bad, really. Gotta say no.
My driver's license renewal form came in the mail last week, so I looked it over and started to fill it out. One of the questions is:
Do you want to have the organ donor designation printed on your driver's license?Now, that is basically nice. The thoughtful people in our state government decided to take the opportunity to recruit all the drivers in the Commonwealth to manifest their willingness to be organ donors.
And my choice the last time around was: Sure, why not. The Church approves of organ donation; it's a charitable way to help somebody, to do a pro-life act. Fine. Happy to help.
But this LifeSite item reminds me that not everybody has the ethical details quite right. (Read the story here if you don't have access to CWN.) It's about unscrupulous doctors in Russia collecting organs from people who weren't dead yet. (They are now.)
Dr. John Shea, medical advisor to Campaign Life Coalition, said that he is not surprised: "The less dead a person is, the better," for purposes of organ harvesting. The practice now is to have the attending physician in a trauma ward make a decision against continuing life-saving efforts, shut off the respirator, and remove organs as soon as possible after even a simple head trauma, he said.But surely it's only over there?
"Let's not blame the Russians, this is going on in Canada and the United States under new protocols for 'non-heart-beating' organ donation. The patient does not even have to be brain dead. The term 'brain death' is useless anyway. No-one ever knew what it meant; now it is being ignored," he said.And when I can't trust the medical system to respect my wishes and wait until I'm really dead (no heartbeat, no breathing, no brain activity) before sending me to a chop-shop, it seems best that I withdraw the permission that I previously gave.
If I'm going to give anybody the OK to collect second-hand body parts from me, it's going to be in some other document that spells out the ethical conditions a little more precisely. I'm not going to leave it to the legislature.
Until then, I'll break it down for ya in the words of the Rev. M.C. Hammer: ...can't touch this.
I agree. My wife knows what to do in that situation and I'll leave the decision to her, not a stranger with an interest in killing me.
I don't know how it works in the US, but here in NZ even if you have donor status listed on your licence your next of kin still have the final say. The Y/N on the drivers licence is more of an indicator to them as to your wishes when they are making their decision.
My next of kin? Oy, don't ask.
I'd better get one of my Catholic buds to take on the job of representing my medical wishes if I ever become a Democrat or am otherwise mentally incapacitated.
This is really irresponsible for you to print!
I am the recipient of organ donation, and also a member of a family that made the decision to donate. One of the criteria for being a donor is that you are no longer able to breathe without artificial means. There are also several other very in depth tests to determine it is no longer a viable life.
I am catholic, but people like you make me embarassed to omit it. You have made a mockery of every family who has decided to donate their loved ones organs. You should be ashamed of yourself. I am sure that God is.
Maybe someday one of your loved ones will need the gift of life. And maybe another families ignorance, influenced by you or someone like you, will cause that person to lose their chance.
Thanks for doing a great disservice to society you idiot.