[ExI] Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network caught by HHS harvesting organs from living patients

[Stuart LaForge]

On 2025-07-28 16:21, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat wrote:
> The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) audited the 
> Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and found some 
> seriously disturbing practices:
> 
> https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hrsa-to-reform-organ-transplant-system.html#:~:text=It%20found%3A,serious%20ethical%20and%20legal%20questions.
> ------Excerpt----------
> "HRSA examined 351 cases where organ donation was authorized, but 
> ultimately not completed. It found:103 cases (29.3%) showed concerning 
> features, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible 
> with organ donation. At least 28 patients may not have been deceased at 
> the time organ procurement was initiated—raising serious ethical and 
> legal questions. Evidence pointed to poor neurologic assessments, lack 
> of coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices, and 
> misclassification of causes of death, particularly in overdose cases."
> ---------------------
> 
> Families were apparently complaining that loved ones were biting down 
> on the life support tubes or crying when technicians were withdrawing 
> their life support to prep them for organ harvesting. Apparently donor 
> cardiac death (DCD) and not brain death was being used as the criteria 
> for organ harvesting. 103 patients out of 351 or 29.3% were not brain 
> dead at the time of organ harvest and 28 of them still had a heartbeat 
> after the mandatory one-hour waiting period after withdrawal of life 
> support, and the patient's organs were still harvested.

I stand corrected, the harvesting of organs in these cases were 
authorized, but not completed, for reasons that the press release does 
not state.

However, this NPR artcile might give insight into at least one of the 
cases:

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/10/16/nx-s1-5113976/organ-transplantion-mistake-brain-dead-surgery-still-alive

--------Excerpt-----------
Natasha Miller says she was getting ready to do her job preserving 
donated organs for transplantation when the nurses wheeled the donor 
into the operating room.

She quickly realized something wasn't right. Though the donor had been 
declared dead, he seemed to her very much alive.

"He was moving around — kind of thrashing. Like, moving, thrashing 
around on the bed," Miller told NPR in an interview. "And then when we 
went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying 
visibly."
--------------------

Stuart LaForge


> And allegedly, if you are not signed up for organ donation, they will 
> try to convince your family to pull the plug, so they can get the 
> organs.
> 
> I am all for voluntary euthanasia with some caveats, but I think this 
> is plain wrong.
> 
> Stuart LaForge
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat