Organ removal ruled homicide

[BigDeputyDog]

Grand Junction - The Montrose County coroner has opened a new controversy in a long-standing national debate over organ donations by ruling that a Montrose man who attempted suicide last week died from the removal of his organs, not from a gunshot wound to his head.
Coroner Mark Young said he found during his review of 31-year-old William Rardin's medical reports that Rardin was not legally dead before his heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys were taken for transplants. More tests should have been performed on Rardin to conclude that he was brain-dead, Young said.

*snip*

Rardin initially was pronounced dead two days earlier at Montrose Memorial Hospital where he was taken by ambulance. No tests to determine brain death were performed there, and he was airlifted to St. Mary's the same day for potential organ harvesting.

Rardin was registered as a donor, and his family agreed to the donation while Rardin's heart was kept beating by artificial means.

Young said that the harvesting of Rardin's organs did not change the ultimate outcome of his suicide attempt. He said the autopsy showed that he would have died within days anyway.
SOURCE (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2446332,00.html)

A truly sticky situation. Organs must be viable to be of worth for transplantation. But, harvesting the organs before clinical death is the same as murder.

As the family member of one who has received a donated organ, I know the value of this procedure. However, as a potential donor myself, I wouldn't want an overanxious physician to be too hasty in the decision to declare me dead.

BDD...

[Steve]

I've read some frightening reports on organ removals. The line between life and death isn't as clear as we think it is, clinically speaking.

[rhobite]

Wow. Organ harvesting is definitely something we need to be concerned about. For people who believe that abortion and the death penalty are morally justified, it's not a big stretch to make a utilitarian argument for organ harvesting from convicts, suicide attempts, the mentally retarded, etc. It's very dangerous moral territory.

Personally, I'm against imposing death on anyone but I think if someone is mentally and emotionally capable, they should be allowed to end their life and donate their organs. If this guy made his wishes clear, it shouldn't matter if he was completely brain-dead at the time.

[LissaKay]

The definition of clinical death is the cessation of respiratory effort and cardiac activity ... IOW, not breathing, heart not beating. This condition can be reversible via CPR and advanced cardiac medical care. It is absolute ... the heart is beating and the lungs are breathing, or they are not.

Brain death occurs approximately 4 - 6 minutes after the onset of clinical death if no resuscitative measures are taken, and is defined by the cessation of electrical brain cell activity. Once brain death has occurred, it is not reversible. Brain death can occur without clinical death preceeding, by way of gross insult to the brain, physical or chemical. I once watched a young lady continue to breath and produce a tracing on a heart monitor for 10 minutes after half of her head was removed by the A-post of her car. Brain death is not absolute ... there are degrees of death. Think of the lady in Florida, Terri Schialvo (sp?) ... she is 90% brain dead. Only the brain stem is functioning, there is no higher function left.

It is possible to reverse clinical death after brain death has occurred though, via artificial means which pump blood through the heart and vasculature, and circulate oxygen through the respiratory system. But that is all you have ... blood and oxygen being pumped through a corpse.

In August of 1996, my brother was assaulted ... he was struck in the head with a heavy, blunt object, which caused massive brain damage. After surgery to reduce the bleeding and relieve pressure, we had a window of hope, but that lasted only until his brain started swelling again. An EEG was performed that showed that all his higher functions were gone and he was just barely able to maintain respiration on his own. In Tennessee, artificial life support can be stopped without court order only within 24 hours of the original insult. We were at 22 hours, 45 minutes when the EEG was done.

My parents were wavering ... the doctors said there was a tiny, miniscule chance that there would be some kind of recovery. I knew that the best case would be a paralyzed vegetable remanded to institutionalized care for God knows how many years. I told my parents to end it there ... to not sentence themselves to what could be decades of misery for all of us. And so it was done ...

We wanted to donate his organs, in fact I insisted that the hospital bring in the transplant team right then, at 3am. But because it was a criminal investigation, an autopsy was mandated and by the time that could be done, the organs were no longer viable. That compounded my grief and anger like you would not believe.

I have some very strong opinions on end-of-life issues ... right to die, right to death with dignity, organ donation, Living Wills and Do-Not-Resuscitate orders ... I will see if I still have some of the essays I wrote back when I stared death in the face on a regular basis. Having those kind of experiences changes one's perception of death ... and life.

[MorWired]

man who attempted suicide last week died from the removal of his organs, not from a gunshot wound to his head.
....
Rardin was registered as a donor, and his family agreed to the donation while Rardin's heart was kept beating by artificial means.

Young said that the harvesting of Rardin's organs did not change the ultimate outcome of his suicide attempt. He said the autopsy showed that he would have died within days anyway.
SOURCE (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2446332,00.html)

A truly sticky situation. Organs must be viable to be of worth for transplantation. But, harvesting the organs before clinical death is the same as murder. This person wanted to die, he purposely and intentionally put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He was being kept "alive" on life-support while his family deliberated about he donations -- if they had chosen to take him off life-support this wouldn't be an issue, but it's possible the organs might not have been harvestable any more, but ultimately he still would have died, that's not being disputed.

In the end, it sounds as though his family and the physicians involved honored the wishes of the donor. He wanted his own death while giving life to others, and so he has succeeded on both counts.