Most people become organ donors because the organs will be removed after they have died and shared with someone who needs the healthy organs.
A case study published in the American Journal of Case Reports titled: Pronounced dead twice: What should an attending physician do in between? concerns a homicide death of a 39-year-old woman that was caused by Acute Fentanyl toxicity due to a Fentanyl injection in the hospital.
The woman was being prepared as an organ donor. She was pronounced dead based on cardiac death. A minute after being pronounced dead the doctors noticed that her aortic and renal arteries were pumping and pulsing. The organ procurement surgery was stopped. The person was then given additional doses of Fentanyl and Lorazepam leading to the woman being pronounced dead again 18 minutes after being pronounced dead the first time.
The case study reports that the autopsy concluded:
A postmortem sub-clavian blood toxicology study found 6.3 ng/mL of Fentanyl, 17 ng/mL of Lorazepam, 15 mcg/mL of Levetiracetam, and 29 ng/mL of Ziprasidone. The cause of death was determined to be acute Fentanyl toxicity due to a Fentanyl injection in the hospital. Another significant condition contributing to death was a ruptured berry aneurysm of the Circle of Willis. The manner of death was determined to be homicide. It is our opinion that the additional dose of Fentanyl given between 3: 00 A.M. and 3: 17 A.M. was the direct cause of death.
I fear that the outcome of this case is not as uncommon as presumed. It is likely that this case became known because one of the medical professionals who was involved with this case was aghast by the reality that the patient was intentionally killed. Since these acts and decisions are made in private settings, it is likely that this occurrence happens somewhat regularly without any notice or commentary by others. Further to that, the administration of a lethal dose of fentanyl is unlikely to have been done unless it had been in the past.
In countries that have legalized euthanasia, linking organ donation to euthanasia not only provides a source of healthy organs for transplant but it also turns euthanasia into a “social good.”
Full story at Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
As most people used to know, “The ends never justify the means.”
Of course, with the illiberal corruption of ethics, I’m increasingly hearing that the “ends do justify the means” — as in the case of this poor woman who was killed so someone else could use her organs.
What’s next?
What hospital was this? Who were the doctors involved?
You won’t find that organ donor sticker on my drivers license. I’m not handing myself over to be live harvested.
There’s more to this than meets the eye. She was already pronounced dead because her heart had stopped. There was unexpected, mild resumption of arterial pulsing. It could have been that she was a goner anyway. This is not a case of harvesting organs from a healthy person killed for that purpose.
Anonymous,
Yes, it’s true that we don’t know if she would have been a goner anyway.
But the doctors gave her more of the drug to make sure that she was a goner.
Did you read what the postmortem concluded???? The patient’s death was ruled a “homicide” [i.e., death at the hands of another] and the direct cause of death was a hospital-administered Fentanyl injection AFTER the organ harvesting was begun. What’s your point? What are you trying to tell us—or is it talk for the sake of talking?
The second death was ruled a homicide. There was no postmortem examination of the body because her second death was known to be caused by drugs so that the originally planned harvesting of her organs could proceed. This wasn’t a criminal matter.
“Should you donate your organs?” Youtube Sensus Fidelium 26 minutes in length but excellent homily by a holy priest in 2014.
After reading the report, I’m surprised that someone with Downs Syndrome would be considered as an organ donor.
Why? It’s not infectious.
Gary Huber might have meant that such a person might not be able to give full informed consent to such a procedure. That is another whole question. Gary can correct me if I am wrong.
Didn’t Anne TE write not too long ago that there are always two sides to every story?
Anne TE is not a donor, nor do I want a donation from someone who has to die to give it to me. I am two old for such a thing anyway. In many cases the donor is only supposedly brain dead with heart still beating as tissue has to be alive to use it, or it is taken immediately after the heart stops. The only ones I agree with are donations such as a family member or compatible donor giving an organ that will not cause his death, such as skin transplants, one kidney, etc., and that should be with full-informed consent. Look up what the American Life League says about organ donations on their website.
This is why I won’t ever be a donor.
Ames, thank you for the mention of the video on organ donation. It is very clear and excellent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXxZENPIZx8
For years I was a Critical Care nurse and I have many stories I could tell…
Please tell one of them
So you can attack her story?
Just odd that someone claims to have “many stories” to tell that would reinforce this article’s contention of malfeasance in the OR concerning organ harvesting, yet she decides not to relate even one of them.
Something like this: “One time I heard the doctor instruct the nurse to increase the dosage of a pain killing drug so the patient would die since his heart was needed for a transplant surgery.” Just something like that…
Thank you for this link. It is excellent and is something we should read often because details on what is right or wrong concerning donations can be forgotten. Sometimes we can tell family members and other people not to sign donor cards, but they will do it anyway.
The Catholic Church supports organ donation. It does not support euthanasia. It does not support killing people for organs.
The person was already declared dead. Big difference. Not euthanasia.
One problem: it is too easy to let a patient die, if they have a rich recipient waiting. Not so much a problem before since most doctors took the Hippocratic Oath or reasonable facsimile. President Obama’s administration got rid of most of that when they tried to force all physicians to perform abortion because not enough wanted to do them. The Hippocratic Oath is against abortion AND euthanasia. Another problem: “Brain death” is not really death” as Fr. Ripperger stated in the video.
“The cause of death was determined to be acute Fentanyl toxicity [6.3 ng/mL] due to a Fentanyl injection in the hospital.”
George Floyd was at 11 ng/mL of Fentanyl, self administered.
I should not have clicked thumbs up on this post as I do not know for sure how much Fentanyl George Floyd had in his body. I have read that there was quite a bit. I was not on the jury, so I have had no access to all the facts.
I’m not sure why we are talking about George Floyd – seems like a red herring to me. However, I did listen to as much of the trial as I could and all the witnesses testified that he did not exhibit acute toxicity and his breathing was normal until his throat was pinned to the concrete.
That said, street use of fentanyl is a horrible problem. It’s 50% more potent than morphine. Dealers add it to other drugs to cheaply increase the potency of the drug people think they are buying, and many unwitting overdoses result. It is a sad tragedy, and its use is closely tied to the opioid abuse that has been promoted for years by the drug companies that make it and the distributors who looked the other way. Now we have many deaths and burnt out brains on the streets. In a well controlled hospital setting, pure fentanyl is a godsend as an analgesic and anesthetic, but its street use is ruining our country.
That was my point. I was not on the jury, so I do not have all the first hand facts. On the other hand, some people are convicted in the public eye before they even have a trial. Reporters often report out of contest what they want people to hear and leave the rest on the cutting room floor. That is not true journalism but just someone’s spin.
Both sides often do that. “Trust but verify,” — Ronald Reagan.
Thanks, Anne TE, I appreciate that and I was just trying to set a number of facts straight.
And speaking of getting facts straight, I made a mistake in my post. I thought I had typed that fentanyl is 50x as potent as morphine. Instead my fingers reached for %. It’s not 50% more potent than morphine, it’s 50 TIMES more potent than morphine.