June 2019 – Article 2
It sounds so compassionate. So caring. A loved one has been declared brain dead and you’re urged to allow doctors to take their organs and save the life of others. It’s the right thing to do they say.
What they don’t tell you is that the term “brain death” was devised for a less than noble purpose.
In a recent media interview, Doyen Nguyen, a lay Dominican and professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, said the idea of brain death has been medical fiction from its very inception.
To begin, she debunks the concept of declaring a person brain dead. The fact that someone is in an irreversible coma indicates that they are alive since only a living person can be comatose. According to Nguyen. it would be an oxymoron to say that a corpse is in a coma.
The Truth behind the “Brain Death” Concept
More to the point, she reveals the real reason for coming up with the idea.
The term brain death, known as the Dead Donor Rule (DDR), was created in a report by the Ad Hoc Harvard Committee in 1968. The purpose:
- To have a fresh supply of viable organs for the transplantation business.
- To avoid any public outcry that transplant surgeons were organ-stealing killers.
As proof, she cites a committee draft document.
Committee chairman Henry K. Beecher wrote: “The question before this committee cannot be simply to define brain death. This would not advance the cause of organ transplantation since it would not cope with the essential issue of when the surgical team is authorized—legally, morally, and medically—in removing a vital organ.”
The final version was toned down to eliminate any suggestion that creating the concept of brain death was to serve the transplant industry.
Bottom line: organ harvesting is a business and practitioners will do, or say, whatever it takes to be successful.
Medical Doctors Make Mistakes Too
While the need for organs is genuine and donating is an honorable act, undo pressure is often used to force relatives to make a hasty decision.
Doctors are often wrong. There are numerous cases of people recovering to varying degrees years after being declared brain dead.
There are even instances of people waking up as doctors began the process of removing their organs. In one case, the person could hear doctors talking before waking up.
Organ Harvesting Must Be Done Quickly
A little known fact is that most organs, especially the heart, have to be retrieved very quickly for transplantation. Some experts believe a heart must be harvested within 120 seconds after it stops. Others suggest up to 10 minutes.
If someone is taken off life support because they’re considered brain dead, it may take a long time for them to actually die—longer than the window for retrieval.
As a result, when dealing with those in a prolonged coma, physicians often rely on value judgments based on quality of life to declare the person technically dead, which allows them to harvest their organs.
Organ Harvesting Becomes the Cause of DeathThat means retrieving the organ is the actual cause of death, not the natural dying process.
This reality was recently confirmed by Dr. Paul Byrne, a neonatologist and President of Life Guardian Foundation, during a meeting of internationally distinguished medical doctors and scholars in Rome.
“Knowing they need to excise organs before a person dies, the medical community uses the term ‘brain death’ to say the person is dead. But these people are not dead! The organ donation procedure is what actually kills them. It stops the heart. Do not be an organ donor,” he told Lifesite News.
Registering as an Organ Donor is Irreversible by Family
Another problem is that most hospitals consider being a registered organ donor as legally binding, meaning organ retrieval must be allowed regardless of family wishes.
Pro-life advocates dealing with a loved one in a coma—or any life threatening illness—should insist on being thoroughly involved in the decision making process and demand that nothing be done to interfere with the natural dying process.
You become a registered donor by indicating you would like to do so when obtaining a driver’s license. If you are a registered donor, you should prayerfully consider whether or not you want to continue.
Anyone wishing to cancel their organ donor registration can go to www.donatelifegeorgia.org. A new driver’s license may also be required
Sources; lifesitenews.com; previous GRTL Newsletters: Organ Donors on the Prowl, Wanted Dead or Alive Part III Dead Enough to Donate, and Wanted Dead Alive Part IV Organ Donation Things to Consider.
By Wayne DuBois
Georgia Right to Life
Media Relations Advisor