Organ Grind
I first caught wind of this story in the British press. Now it has hit ABC News. A California doctor faces charges of hastening the death of a disabled man in order to take the man's organs for transplant. Medical experts are frantic, worried that this will make even more people reluctant to become organ donors.
A court case in which a doctor has been charged with hastening a disabled patient's death, in order to harvest his kidneys and liver, has sparked concern among ethicists and organ transplant experts alike.
According to a report in the New York Times, preliminary hearings began Wednesday for Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh. The California doctor faces three felony counts, including the charge that he prescribed excessive and improper doses of drugs to 25-year-old Ruben Navarro in 2006. Navarro suffered from a rare metabolic disorder that had left him disabled and brain damaged.
Prosecutors allege that Roozrokh prescribed additional doses of sedative drugs in order to hasten Navarro's death and harvest his organs sooner. However, when Navarro died on Feb. 4 at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, his organs had already deteriorated to the point that they could not be used.
Roozrokh has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If he is convicted on all counts, he could face up to eight years in prison.
Here's a report from the Telegraph that describes the doctor's alleged actions:
Roozrokh arrived at the hospital as part of a transplant team. He stayed in the room while Mr Navarro's respirator was removed and ordered the drugs, according to a nurse who was present.
The nurse also told police that Roozrokh asked another nurse to find and administer more "candy" - drugs - when Navarro did not die immediately. According to protocol, transplant teams are not allowed into a prospective donor's room before they are declared dead.
The case comes amid debate in Britain over allowing a system of presumed consent, where patients would be required to opt out of organ donation. Civil liberty groups have expressed concerns that presumed consent might rob individuals of the right to decide the fate of their body.
The case will make some people more reluctant to be donors, of course. The experts are worried for good reason. There should have been better controls in place - obviously, Roozrokh should never have been in that room, much less issuing orders to nurses.
By sam, Thursday, 28 February , 2008 @ 2:15 pm
A rather ghoulish spectacle that I expect to become more common, what with the shortage of organs for donation.
By Al in St. Lou, Thursday, 28 February , 2008 @ 4:38 pm
Another phenomenon that could be fixed with a free market approach–but won’t.