Organ-Harvesting Incident Concerns Pro-Lifers

05/28/2008
Organ-Harvesting Incident Concerns Pro-Lifers
By: Joe Murray , The Bulletin

A West Virginia woman who suffered two heart attacks, was declared brain dead and only kept on a ventilator while the option of organ donation was discussed, is alive and recovering in a Cleveland clinic. The incident has reignited the controversy over brain death and organ donation.

For 17 hours, doctors reported they could not detect any brain waves coming from Val Thomas. Her heart had stopped and no pulse could be found. Doctors prepared for the inevitable and her family accepted the worst.

Mrs. Thomas was placed on a respirator, but her family stated her body began to harden and her fingers began to curl. With signs of life dwindled, doctors removed Mrs. Thomas' tubes and her family came in to say their final goodbyes. Mrs. Thomas, however, was kept on a ventilator in order to preserve her vital organs while the option of organ donation was discussed.

But to the surprise of all, Mrs. Thomas woke up and began talking.

"She had no neurological function," said Dr. Kevin Eggleston to reporters.

The incident, however, has some questioning the role brain death has played in a medical community that is sometimes perceived as rushing toward death to harvest new organs from those who could still live.

"Brain death is a whole construct to make it possible to get organs from a living donor," stated Kathy Coll, president of the Pro-Life Coalition. The pro-life activist believes the issue of brain death and its connection with organ harvesting is one of the underreported debates raging in pro-life and medical circles.

"For pro-lifers they need to understand that this a pro-life issue because innocent people are being rushed to death because of their organs," Mrs. Coll argued.

The pro-life advocate believes many in the pro-life community "have been conditioned to believe that organ donation is beneficial for the person donating the organs and receiving the organs," but the reality is organ donation and brain death should be "viewed with suspicion and caution."

"This is only the most recent example of a long line of cases where patients have been declared dead but have survived to tell the tale. And while some would like to believe the debate over brain death and organ donation is closed, the debate is very much alive," Mrs. Coll added.

Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us.

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