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Transplant surgeon, allegedly seeking organs, is charged with trying to hasten patient's death
LA Times ^ | 07.30.07 | Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber

Posted on 07/30/2007 6:12:33 PM PDT by Coleus

A San Francisco transplant surgeon was criminally charged today with allegedly attempting to hasten the death last year of a 26-year-old disabled man on life support in order to harvest his organs more quickly. The charges are the first in the nation against a physician for his role in a transplant and are sure to raise further uneasiness about a somewhat controversial practice in which organs are retrieved before a patient is brain-dead.

The San Luis Obispo County district attorney's office accused Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, of dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance and prescribing an unlawful controlled substance without legitimate medical purpose. The surgeon allegedly ordered massive amounts of narcotic painkillers and sedatives for Ruben Navarro, a physically and mentally disabled man, "to accelerate Mr. Navarro's death," according to a written release from the district attorney. In addition, Roozrokh is accused of administering Betadine, a topical antiseptic, into Navarro's stomach.

Navarro died in 2006. No organs were recovered because he did not die within the 30 minutes after being removed from life support. Roozrokh's lawyer, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, called his client an "extremely dedicated and accomplished organ transplant surgeon" and said the charges filed against him were "unfounded and ill-advised." "Dr. Roozrokh did not commit any crime," Schwartzbach said in a written statement.

If convicted of the three counts, he faces up to eight years in state prison, the district attorney's office said. A warrant was issued for Roozrokh's arrest and he is expected to turn himself in this week.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: bioethics; bodybrokers; healthcare; organdonation; organharvesting; organtransplant; organtransplants; roozrokh; sf
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1 posted on 07/30/2007 6:12:35 PM PDT by Coleus
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To: 8mmMauser; 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember; afraidfortherepublic; Alas; al_c; american colleen; ...

.


2 posted on 07/30/2007 6:13:12 PM PDT by Coleus (Pro Deo et Patria)
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To: Coleus

That’s pretty sick.


3 posted on 07/30/2007 6:17:13 PM PDT by digitalbrownshirt (http://digitalbrownshirt.blogspot.com)
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To: Coleus
"a somewhat controversial practice in which organs are retrieved before a patient is brain-dead."

Uhh... somewhat controversial? Only in the liberal mind where dismembering a full term baby is a "reproductive right" and a "medical procedure".

4 posted on 07/30/2007 6:18:22 PM PDT by Eagles6
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To: Coleus

I bet Michael Savage mentions this on his talk show.


5 posted on 07/30/2007 6:22:31 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: Coleus

bump for later


6 posted on 07/30/2007 6:33:10 PM PDT by padre35 (Conservative in Exile.)
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To: Coleus

FR Keyword body brokers for more:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=bodybrokers


7 posted on 07/30/2007 6:36:13 PM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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Heart recipients' hospital has China death-row link

Excerpt:

Ethical and medical concerns have often been raised regarding organ transplants in China over issues that include the use of organs of prisoners on death row and uncertain postsurgery health-care, experts said.

The National Traditional Chinese Medicine Thrombus Treatment Center in Shenyang City. According to a former nurse who worked there, the Sujiatun death camp is in an underground complex connected to this hospital.

The furnace unit on the southwest side of the hospital. There are two doors leading to the underground complex of the Sujiatun death camp. According to the witnesses, the remains of Falun Gong practitioners are incinerated here after their organs are extracted.

Mr. Zuo Zhigang, age 33, was arrested on May 30, 2001, by the Shijiazhuang City police. He was beaten to death that night at the Qiaoxi District Police Station. His corpse was covered with scars, and there were two large square-shaped holes on the back of his torso, consistent with kidney harvesting.

Mr. Ren Pengwu, age 33, was arrested by the police in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province on February 16, 2001. Five days later, he was murdered and all his organs, from his pharynx and larynx to his penis, were removed. The authorities hastily cremated his remains that same day without his family's knowledge or consent.

Click to View - Warning, Disturbing

On May 14, 2004, two policemen abducted Ms. Wang Yunjie while she was working in a shopping center and later sent her to the infamous Masanjia forced labor camp. To break her will and force her to renounce Falun Gong, the police tortured her every day for the next six months with beatings, hanging her in the air, depriving her of sleep, solitary confinement, forcing her to stand or squat for days at a time, etc. She was also forced to do hard labor for extended hours. In December 2002, after depriving her of sleep for many days, the police stripped her clothes and shocked her breasts with two electric batons for half and hour. They then tied her up like a ball by forcibly bending her upper body down to her legs and handcuffing her arms behind her back. While in that position, they hung her up by her wrists for seven hours. The protracted torture severely damaged her body, the electric shocks disfigured her breasts, and her left breast became infected and festered. Even then, the labor camp continued to torture her for another six months. Only when she was on the verge of death did the labor camp order her family to pay 2000 Yuan and take her home.

Click to view - Disturbing

Mr. Wang Bin was arrested and detained at the Dongfeng Xinchun Labor Camp. On the night of September 27, 2000, five guards and prisoners beat him so severely that they broke his neck, injured his tonsils, crushed his lymph nodes, and fractured several bones. He was taken to the Daqing People's Hospital, but died in the hospital on October 4, 2000. Two doctors in the hospital removed his heart and brain. The photo shows that his body had been operated on.

http://falunhr.org/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=90&Itemid=92

Please remember the name: Sujiatun. It will one day be as infamous as Auschwitz and Dachau.

On March 8, 2006, a Chinese journalist on the run from the Chinese communist regime disclosed to Falun Gong practitioners in the United States some appalling news: a secret death camp in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province in China.

According to this journalist, over 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been taken to Sujiatun. "I believe that once they are in they 100% cannot come back out," the journalist said. He also disclosed that there are incineration chambers and a large number of doctors there. "Why are there incineration chambers there? Why are there so many doctors inside? Certainly not for the benevolent treatment of prisoners. Something you simply cannot imagine..."

"The prisoners, the Communist Party definitely will not let them just waste food there. Why are they there then? ... They will all be murdered, and all their organs will be harvested and distributed to hospitals. The sale of human organs is a vastly profitable trade in China."

Falun Gong practitioners are not the only victims of such crimes. One week after the journalist's disclosure, a former nurse whose ex-husband had taken part in harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners also stepped forward to testify:

"I used to work at the Liaoning Thrombus Treatment Center, which was next to the concentration camp. My ex-husband had taken part in removing corneas from Falun Gong practitioners. This brought disaster to my family."

"In early 2001, my husband was assigned by the hospital to secretly remove corneas from Falun Gong practitioners. He hid this from me at the beginning, but slowly I sensed he was in great agony, had nightmares often, and was always stressed. After my repeated inquiries, he told me the truth in 2003."

"He knew they were Falun Gong practitioners. Every doctor who took part knew. They were told that eliminating Falun Gong was not a crime, but helping the Communist Party to do 'cleansing.' Those who were taken in on the operating tables were anesthetized. Elderly people or children were mostly used for harvesting corneas."

"At the time when my ex-husband told me about this, he could no longer bear the torment of doing such evil things, and decided to leave China to escape the horror. He said to me: you cannot possibly know my despair, because those Falun Gong practitioners were still alive. It was different from removing organs from dead people - they were alive."

"Because of this, I divorced him. I said to him: you are done with your career; you will not be able to hold a scalpel in the future."

"I know there are still Falun Gong practitioners in that hospital," this nurse said in the end. "I hope this crime can be exposed to the international society as quickly as possible, so their lives can be saved. I also hope, through my disclosure, to atone my relative's crime."

The victims are not even limited to Chinese. It is an open secret that China has become the world capital of organ transplantation, and ships human organs to nearby countries such as Thailand. Tens of thousands from different parts of the world have received organ transplants in China and Thailand, being assured that the organs have been legally obtained. How will they and their surgeons feel when they learn about the barbaric organ harvesting, even if the organs harvested from Falun Gong practitioners turn out to account for a portion of all human organs used in transplant operations? Is there a way for them to remove the doubt? Will they want to find out? Or will they bear that doubt and forever avoid mentioning "transplanted in China"?

Another doctor recently stated that extracting organs from living prisoners is common across China. How many more camps like Sujiatun exist?

It was precisely because we abhor such appalling crimes that humanity vowed "Never again!" after the shock of the Holocaust. Yet, as this vow is still ringing in the ears of Holocaust survivors, we are in for another shock - or are we? How do we explain to ourselves and our children that we have watched the systematic eradication of Falun Gong for more than six years and allowed it to escalate to the emergence of human organ harvesting factories like Sujiatun?

It is not due to a lack of information. Ever since July 1999, Falun Gong practitioners in China have been taking great risks to collect and send abroad, on a daily basis, detailed information on the extensive and severe human rights violations committed by the Chinese communist regime. Falun Gong practitioners overseas have worked their hardest to disseminate this information to governments, media, opinion leaders, the United Nations, and the general public to appeal for their attention.

United Nation's Reports

It is not because the information is unsubstantiated. In the past few years, many Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Commission have cited in their annual reports numerous cases of torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese regime. Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir wrote in her 2003 report: "The cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts of torture defy description." On October 15, 2004, seven Special Rapporteurs sent a joint letter to China to express their concern about the persecution of Falun Gong. These Special Rapporteurs are the most-respected authorities on human rights. Their findings and opinions on the Chinese regime's persecution of Falun Gong have been reprinted to thousands upon thousands of copies and submitted to world governments and media.

History, unfortunately, repeats itself. Just as the Holocaust information provided by Jewish groups was cast aside or downplayed because of the "unsubstantiated nature of the information" and its "prejudiced sources," information from Falun Gong practitioners has received the same fate. History has also shown that all major atrocities occurred when there was not enough media exposure, when perilous signals were ignored because they were "incomplete" or "unsubstantiated" or from "prejudiced sources" - when evildoers' deceits prevail, when the silence allows the evildoers to carry on unnoticed and unhindered.

History, however, never duplicates itself exactly.

There is no major military or ideological confrontation in the world now. While the Allies did not have their focus on saving the Holocaust victims, at least they were fighting the Nazis and determined to win the war. We do not have that excuse now. On the contrary, we are apparently determined to win the market in China.

Technology is far more advanced now than it was in WWII, and we do not even need to be at Auschwitz or Buchenwald to know what is going on there. If 6,000 people have been taken in to Sujiatun and none has come out, how hard is it to see from surveillance satellites the suspicious traffic going in and out to figure out that it is a death camp?

There are now many international human rights laws that were not available before the Nuremberg trials, and there are now many surveillance and protection mechanisms implemented by the United Nations. How hard is it to demand an international investigation into the serious claim of the death camp's existence? What were those international human rights laws established for?

We do not always ignore incomplete or unsubstantiated information from China, however. When Dr. Jiang Yanyong disclosed the Chinese regime's deadly lies about the SARS epidemic, the retired doctor's letter to the media contained only what he had heard from his colleagues. Did the world hesitate for a second because the information was "incomplete" or "unsubstantiated"? Why didn't the information's incompleteness prevent decisive action by the international community? In fact, his letter was sent only to Chinese media, but Western media got hold of it and publicized it. Why does the world react so differently to the SARS news and the Sujiatun news, both of life-and-death importance? Isn't it because Sujiatun is about other people's lives?

If that is not enough to make us look at the selfish side of our humanity, consider this: if Sujiatun happened anywhere else other than China, whether in democratic countries or in North Korea, Sudan, or Cuba, it would have caused major outcries. Only the human greed for economic gains from China has kept the Sujiatun death camp from being an international issue.

"The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated." Justice Jackson knew the legacy that the Nuremberg trials would leave behind when he drafted his opening speech. If he have lived to see the post-Nuremberg wrongs, he might have been more introspective and lead a trial on human conscience and how it could allow the wrongs to continue to happen.


8 posted on 07/30/2007 6:36:54 PM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: Eagles6

I’ve seen indications of strong support, right here on FR, for harvesting organs from brain damaged people. It’s a sick world sometimes.


9 posted on 07/30/2007 6:39:41 PM PDT by LilAngel (No blood for quislings)
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To: Coleus

Welcome to the slippery slope. Hang on, the ride has already started.


10 posted on 07/30/2007 6:44:26 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (When toilet paper is a luxury, you have achieved communism.)
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To: Calpernia

I wonder about the source of the cadavers used in “The Bodies” exhibit which is getting such attention as it tours. I can’t help but think they came from horrific means such as these. Does anyone have any information on this?


11 posted on 07/30/2007 6:45:45 PM PDT by luckymom (Forget the baby whales, save the baby humans.)
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To: LilAngel

Yes it is. Unfortunately, some of that mentality do post here. Sad.


12 posted on 07/30/2007 6:48:54 PM PDT by Eagles6
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To: Coleus

Going by the name, the accused would appear to be of TROP..


13 posted on 07/30/2007 6:51:23 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: luckymom

China Turns Out Mummified Bodies for Displays

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/business/worldbusiness/08bodies.html?ex=1312689600&en=672da5787d998daf&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

Fierce competition among body show producers has led to accusations of copyright theft, unfair competition and trafficking in human bodies in a country with a reputation for allowing a flourishing underground trade in organs and other body parts.

Here in China, determining who is in the body business and where the bodies come from is not easy. Museums that hold body exhibitions in China say they have suddenly “forgotten” who supplied their bodies, police officials have regularly changed their stories about what they have done with bodies, and even universities have confirmed and then denied the existence of body preservation operations on their campuses.


14 posted on 07/30/2007 6:53:02 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'Chaim!)
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To: Eagles6
Uhh... somewhat controversial? Only in the liberal mind where dismembering a full term baby is a "reproductive right" and a "medical procedure".

I have read post from preople here that have no problem with this, but then there are a few that would get really up set if the doctor had off an animal. Sac off

Congress needs to take a long hard look at the business of selling organs in this country, run by a few corrupt doctors for more corrupt doctors.

15 posted on 07/30/2007 6:54:50 PM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: luckymom

We had a thread on that here. Supposedly, they said they donated them.

But I can’t help but wonder about the grant monies and the sudden intertwining of medical facilities calling themselves Medical Arts.


16 posted on 07/30/2007 6:57:00 PM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: org.whodat

Agreed.


17 posted on 07/30/2007 7:06:01 PM PDT by Eagles6
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To: incindiary

ping


18 posted on 07/30/2007 7:43:54 PM PDT by CounterCounterCulture (Duncan Hunter for President)
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To: Coleus
This sort of thing has always creeped me out since medicine first began transplanting organs. I plan to wear my organs out so they won't be of any use to another person, and if one of mine wears out sooner than the rest, I don't want someone else's as a replacement. This is why I refuse to sign the organ donation card.

If my children or someone close to me needed an organ I have, I would be happy to give them whatever it was, but I have never been able to get into the donating or receiving in the organ donor program. And yes, I do know people who have received replacement organs from strangers, and they are very grateful for the extended time it has bought for them.

19 posted on 07/30/2007 7:45:27 PM PDT by penowa
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To: Coleus

From the Doctor’s web page at Kaiser Permanente:

My Biography

At Kaiser Permanente, I appreciate the ability to focus on tumors of the liver, bile ducts, pancreas, and esophagus. I am able to provide a high quality surgery for members. Kaiser’s integrated system attracts expert physicians, and affords me opportunities to work with top-notch GI specialists, radiologists, oncologists, and pathologists. We work as a team to deliver efficient, multidisciplinary approaches to cancer treatment. I think our members receive excellent care.

I have a particular interest in pathology of the foregut. I have specialized training in transplantation, which allows me to have a greater comprehension of surgical conditions affecting the foregut. I regularly attend professional conferences of the American College of Surgeons.

When I am away from work, my hobbies include racing cars and playing golf. I THRIVE by endeavoring to practice good karma.

Other Languages: Farsi
Undergraduate Education: B.S. in Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
Professional Affiliations: American College of Surgeons; San Francisco Medical Society; American Society of Laparoscopic Surgeons; American Society of Transplant Surgeons
Year Began Practice: 2005
Joined Kaiser Permanente: 2005

Other Resources

My Credentials

Medical school Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
Residency Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Fellowship Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Board certification Surgery-General, American Board of Surgery

He is evidently an Iranian American, and probably Muslim.


20 posted on 07/30/2007 8:03:32 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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