Organ donation

[orangat]

A new category of non-heart beating organ donor (controlled nhbd) refers to a patient who is in a vegetative state (not brain dead) who has life support withdrawn to allow cardiac arrest/death (doesn't always happen) to become a donor - Is it ethical?
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/va...ndonation.html
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...i?artid=137443
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...57C0A961958260
http://sciwrite.org/sciwrite/sciwrite.weissarticle.html

The controversy lies in several issues:-
1. Proactive medical procedures eg. drugs, venous cutdowns, drips to prepare a patient performed without consent. These procedures are non-therapeutic and harmful to the already severely ill patient
2. Unethical because some patients who do not arrest have made full or partial recovery.
3. The limbo state of patients who unexpectedly do not arrest after ventilator is removed. Since the decision to stop life support is already taken, patient may simple be left without treatment.
4. NHBD is slippery slope of first expanding the definition of death(over brain death) then by allowing patients who are not in a permanent vegetative state (eg. poor prognosis) dependant on a ventilator to be nhbd.