Well placed suspicion

We are urged by public service announcements and marketing campaigns to be organ donors. State drivers licensing facilities make that easy with a check mark on their forms, so your license identifies you immediately as a donor. But that’s a dangerous thing to do…

Without exaggeration, listing yourself as an organ donor can lead to an early death. Americans are right to be wary.

A poll has come out about the public’s attitudes toward organ donation that allegedly shows us as ignorant and unduly distrustful of the system. I think this requires a closer look. From the story “Lingering Myths Discourage Organ Donation”:

“Only 38% of licensed drivers have joined their states’ organ donor registries, with many deterred by long-held misconceptions about how the transplant system works, according to poll results released in April. The survey of 5,100 American adults, conducted on behalf of the organ-donation advocacy group Donate Life America, found that:

50% think that registering as organ donors means physicians will not try as hard to save their lives.”

Perhaps that is because people realize that medical ethics have taken a distinct utilitarian turn in recent years, what with futile care theory and health care rationing in the offing. Knowing that people with severe cognitive disabilities are being disdained by some as “non persons” and looked upon as potential natural resources, adds to the fear. It is unreasonable to expect folk to compartmentalize organ donation from the rest of the problems with health care.

Another poll finding:

“26% believe that patients determined to be brain dead can recover from their injuries.”

Perhaps that is because the criteria utilized to declare death by neurological criteria are not uniform throughout the country and in at least a few cases, supposedly brain dead people “woke up.” Also, too many people in the media use the term “brain death” far too loosely, such as calling Terri Schiavo brain dead, when, before she was dehydrated to death, she was clearly alive.

Clear to anyone who looks at the facts. Wesley picks just one example to illustrate:

The title of the piece is, “South Korea Court Grants ‘Right to Die.” Huh? If someone is already dead–which is what brain dead is–how can she be described as “terminally ill” and granted “a right to die?” (This case is really about the right to remove unwanted life-sustaining treatment.) Also the children say this will relieve their mother’s pain. But if she’s in pain, she isn’t dead. (And if she’s truly unconscious, she’s not in pain.)

Right. Apply logic. Exercise caution.