The following comes from a Dec. 1 story on MercatorNet.com.
Doctors in the Netherlands are working on a scheme to increase the number of life-saving organs available for transplant – by harvesting them from people who want to be euthanased.
Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam and the University Hospital of Maastricht have already written national guidelines which are being studied by the Dutch Transplant Foundation.
If the procedures are approved, they would be binding on hospitals and doctors throughout the country.
Spurring on this study is the feeling among transplant surgeons that healthy organs are sometimes wasted when patients are euthanased. In the words of a medical ethics expert with the Royal Dutch Medical Association, Gert van Dijk, “An estimated 5 to 10% of people who are euthanased could be considered for organ donation. Five percent does not seem like much, but this still means 250 to 500 potential organ donors every year.” He believes that Dutch doctors could even double the number of organs available for life-saving procedures.
Technically, linking euthanasia and organ transplants has many advantages. It is a “living donation”, so the organs are fresher and more viable than if they are taken from someone who has suffered brain death and is being kept alive artificially. And unlike most living donations, all the organs – both kidneys, both lungs, the whole liver, the heart, the corneas etc – will become available. This way of crossing the bar could also give donors the consolation of knowing that they are saving lives even if they themselves are about to die.
Up to now, there have only been six case of organ donation after euthanasia in the Netherlands. More have been done in neighbouring Belgium, where euthanasia is also legal.
While getting euthanasia patients to donate organs might sound like a snap, in practice there are a number of difficulties. Most euthanasia patients have cancer and so their organs are not suitable for donation. The most suitable patients are those with neurodegenerative diseases like ALS or multiple sclerosis, who constitute only a small fraction of the total number of Dutch who are euthanased every year. Even though they are afflicted with creeping paralysis, their organs are healthy.
There are administrative issues as well. Most hospitals are adverse to allowing doctors to perform euthanasia if they are not staff members. Many euthanasia patients want to die at home, but if they want to donate their organs, they have to die in an operating theatre, away from their loved ones. It will be a lonely and clinical death, very different from the one most of them have envisaged….
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Coming soon to the USA, via the DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
The 2014 California State Democratic Party now fully endorses as one of their goals – EUTHANASIA (coded death with dignity).
And the California Bishops have said nothing. The silence is deafening.
EUTANASIA (one of the 6 Intrinsic Evils) –
CCC: ” 2324 Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder.
It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. ”
CCC: ” 2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons.
It is morally unacceptable.
Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator.
The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act,
which must always be forbidden and excluded. “
Sounds a lot like Abortion –
the murder of an innocent human being for the convenience of another.
The DEVIL at work !!!!
This is grisly policy — what is morally wrong with these people? And, where are the local bishops regarding this? It is likely only a short stretch of time before doctors can go to some “death board” and ask that someone be affirmatively euthanized.
Wait, wait — don’t we already have these boards, in effect, under ObamaCare? Yes, yes we do, Curious One, just wait a bit longer, and we will have all the organs that anyone needs. Just think of aother things that the government can force us to do, now that Gonzo Dread Pirate Roberts says that pretty much everything is OK if it can be seen, somehow, some way, in some fashion, as a “tax”. Perhaps there will be a tax on living, or on breathing (to be more specific), or on resting on bedsheets (only so long, you know), or drinking water: remember, everything comes from the Government: “you didn’t build that. . .”
Many of the Dutch have lost their souls! Many Americans, likewise, have lost their souls! A horrific tragedy! We need to cultivate very strong, loving Traditional Marriage and Family Life, in America– with strong bonds of LOVE, RESPONSIBILITY, and Christian beliefs and practices! Traditional churches, and traditional marriages, homes, and families! And less institutions for the elderly, less “individualism” for ALL age-groups, in daily life– more co-operative styles of family life, with close intergenerational bonds!! No more “ALIENATED, UNNATURAL, NEUROTIC, PSYCYHOTIC MODERN MAN!!” Children all must again learn from their parents, and the Church– how to live responsibly, how to worship God, how to cultivate good manners and good morals– and how to grow up and live properly as responsible adults, in our society, and in our Church!
Ask yourselves, why are there no laws on the books which state how brain “death” is determined. Could it be because an injured brain is not the determination of death? Death is when absolutely EVERY cell in the body is DEAD. This occurs approximately 7 minutes after respiration and circulation has stopped.
Organ harvesting, which causes a person’s death, is about utilitarianism pure and simple. We should not be surprised then by this move on the part of Holland. It is only time that this will be coming to America. China is already known for harvesting the organs of those condemned to die.