Shortage In Organ Donation

On October 20, 2009, Forty-one year old Caroline Burns awoke on the operating table moments before the surgeons were able to harvest her organs for donor transplantation. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the patient’s family was informed that Ms. Burns had permanent brain impairment and experienced cardiorespiratory arrest, thus ultimately placing her at the operating table. The report stated that Ms. Burns suffered from a drug overdose and was not responsive. However, in the same report a nurse testifies to documenting vital signs of life and movement, such as ‘toes curling, breathing above the ventilator, and mouthing.’ (Whiteman) Doctors at the St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, New York made a mistake diagnosing Caroline Burns as “brain dead”; who is to say this carelessness did not originate from Caroline being an organ …show more content…
Due to a shortage in organ donors in the United States, it is not plausible to rule out this possibility. As a matter a fact because of the shortage in organs, mandatory organ donation is a possibility for the United States. However, there exist another option, the ‘opt-out’ system practiced outside of the U.S., which has demonstrated vast success in eliminating shortages, especially in kidney transplants. Even though mandatory organ donation may solve the shortage issue, it is controversial proposal. For starters, compulsory organ donation will allow doctors to move quicker when operating on a person who is declared ‘dead’, who may not be truly be dead. Secondly, obligatory organ donations violate certain beliefs and religious practices. Lastly, some people simply do not want to donate. As a result, mandatory organ donation will allow room for negligence, disrupt religious practices, and an individual’s rights to decide what happens with