[Muda69]

http://www.foxnews.c...test=latestnews

FTA:"Gary Phebus, of White, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2008.

ALS is a rapidly progressive and fatal neurological disease that attacks one's nerve system and muscles. Eventually, it affects your ability to control the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe, the Mayo Clinic said on its website.

Phebus says once he realized he was going downhill, he researched organ donation and learned people often face long waits. He says he wants to give up his organs — his heart, lungs and liver — now, before they deteriorate.

But state and federal laws say that a person must be brain dead before a decision to donate organs can be made. Phebus wants to change that.

Phebus says he doesn't consider his proposal suicide because he's "dead anyway."

Although ALS causes muscle weakness, it does not affect muscles in internal organs such
as your heart, liver, bladder and kidneys.

It's estimated that as many as 20,000 Americans have ALS with 5,000 people diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

... "

Isn't an adult the final arbiter of his body, unless he signs those rights away?

[Wabash82]

Muda69, on 29 July 2010 - 11:28 AM, said:

http://www.foxnews.c...test=latestnews

FTA:"Gary Phebus, of White, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2008.

ALS is a rapidly progressive and fatal neurological disease that attacks one's nerve system and muscles. Eventually, it affects your ability to control the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe, the Mayo Clinic said on its website.

Phebus says once he realized he was going downhill, he researched organ donation and learned people often face long waits. He says he wants to give up his organs — his heart, lungs and liver — now, before they deteriorate.

But state and federal laws say that a person must be brain dead before a decision to donate organs can be made. Phebus wants to change that.

Phebus says he doesn't consider his proposal suicide because he's "dead anyway."

Although ALS causes muscle weakness, it does not affect muscles in internal organs such
as your heart, liver, bladder and kidneys.

It's estimated that as many as 20,000 Americans have ALS with 5,000 people diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

... "

Isn't an adult the final arbiter of his body, unless he signs those rights away?

While the guy may be figuratively correct in describing himself as "already dead," that is not a factually correct statement, and the removal of his heart or lungs or (I assume) liver would cause his actual death. The assistance of a doctor would be needed to remove the guy's heart or lungs or liver for purposes of transplanting them, so what you are really talking about is legalizing a (fairly gruesome) form of assisted suicide. Most states have declined to allow assisted suicide in part because of the tricky issue of consent -- people suffering from depression are not always capable of making rational decisions, and people diagnosed with a terminal illness often get depressed. In addition, allowing living individals to "donate" organs raises the specters of coercion and under the table organ selling. Moreover, I assume any law that would allow this practice would have to have provisions that allow the living donor to change his or her mind -- if they announced the discovery of a miracle cure for ALS as the guy was being wheeled into the operating room to have his heart cut out, he might have second thoughts about it. Where would you draw the line -- would you have a judge and lawyer in the operating room to ask the guy, right before they administer the anesthetic, if he REALLY wants to do this?

The principal advantage of waiting until a person is actually dead before removing organs that they (prior to that time) needed to stay alive is that there is not a whole lot of risk that the person is going to change his mind about donating those organs. ;)

[giant1]

Muda69, on 29 July 2010 - 11:28 AM, said:

http://www.foxnews.c...test=latestnews

FTA:"Gary Phebus, of White, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2008.

ALS is a rapidly progressive and fatal neurological disease that attacks one's nerve system and muscles. Eventually, it affects your ability to control the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe, the Mayo Clinic said on its website.

Phebus says once he realized he was going downhill, he researched organ donation and learned people often face long waits. He says he wants to give up his organs — his heart, lungs and liver — now, before they deteriorate.

But state and federal laws say that a person must be brain dead before a decision to donate organs can be made. Phebus wants to change that.

Phebus says he doesn't consider his proposal suicide because he's "dead anyway."

Although ALS causes muscle weakness, it does not affect muscles in internal organs such
as your heart, liver, bladder and kidneys.

It's estimated that as many as 20,000 Americans have ALS with 5,000 people diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

... "

Isn't an adult the final arbiter of his body, unless he signs those rights away?

ALS patients are not considered suitable donors.If he were suitable to donate he would have to be unconscious during the procedure and would therefore not be the final arbiter of his body.

This post has been edited by giant1: 29 July 2010 - 10:20 PM

[Muda69]

Should a healthy adult be able to donate his organs before he dies? Or sell them on the free market?

[Wabash82]

Muda69, on 30 July 2010 - 06:03 AM, said:

Should a healthy adult be able to donate his organs before he dies? Or sell them on the free market?

I thinky you need to be more precise about the first question. People are currently permitted to donate certain organs - those not necessary for them to continue living, such as one of their kidneys -- while they are alive. And, technically, people also now may "donate" other organs, ones that they need to keep living, while they are still alive, it is just that the donated organs cannot be removed from their bodies until after they are dead. So I assume what you mean to ask is whether or not it should be legal for someone to commit suicide by having some organ they need to continue living removed from their body, specifically so that this organ may be used for transplantation into someone else. I think I gave my answer to that question already above. No, I don't think this should be legal, in part because it would create an environment in which people may be subjected to wrongful coercion to donate or sell their vital organs (by people or the families of people in need of a transplant, or perhaps more likely, by criminal-element "organ brokers" who woud pop up in such an environment), and because of the difficulty in resolving the issues of knowing consent and what safeguards would have to be put in place in the event the donor changed his mind. I also oppose it philosophically, because it is in my mind a big jump down the slippery slope toward govenment-compelled euthenasia -- if today we let an ALS victim who considers himself figuratively "already dead" to decide that he should be able to kill himself in order to provide his vital organs to others, it's not long before it is the government that is deciding which people should be considered figuratively "already dead" (i.e. who, in the government's eyes, has an insufficient "quality of life" to continue living), and their organs "harvested." More personally, I oppose it on religous grounds, as I believe suicide is sinful and potentially threatens the salvation of the person who kills himself.

With regard to the second question -- whether people should be allowed to sell their organs on a free market -- my answer to the first question applies if you are talking about vital organs, the removal of which will result in the death of the donor. If you are talking only about organs that can be removed without causing the person's death, like one of a person's two functioning kidneys, my answer would depend on the quality of the warranty offered with the "product." ;)