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The American Medical Association said Monday that a controversial proposal to boost organ donation merits study. It's called "presumed consent": Anyone who dies would automatically be considered an organ donor, unless he or she had previously registered an objection. During its annual meeting in Chicago, the AMA recommended pilot studies "in relatively small populations" to determine whether presumed consent would increase organ donations. Presumed consent is in effect in some countries in Europe and South America. Presumed consent laws for organ transplants have been introduced in several states, but none has passed. More here.

Terri Schiavo is not the first innocent victim of murder sanctioned by judicial fiat, although the heroic efforts of her parents alerted the world about her heartbreaking death sentence. Almost four decades ago, the fallacious concept of "brain death" was introduced to pry open the legal doors to the killing of another group of unnoticed innocents — people who agree to donate their vital organs at death. People are encouraged to consent in writing to allow another person to benefit from their vital organs, such as the heart or liver, after they die. Potential donors overcome their discomfort about the...

Woman Claims Doctors Harvested Her Organs for Illegal Transplants and Killed Her Husband By Feng Changle The Epoch Times Mar 29, 2005 Yang Jie was featured in a newspaper article after being involved in what she believed was an operation to help save her husband. After surgery, however, she found that 7/10 of her liver, gallbladder and bile duct were gone, and her husband was dead, his organs harvested for other transplants. (The Epoch Times) Doctors are expected to be guided by humanitarian concepts, exemplifying goodness and purity. The deeds of doctors at the Shenzhen Second People's Hospital in China,...

His case had been reviewed, the letter said. ``In addition, we have reviewed your personal Web site.'' The American Society of Transplant Surgeons and LifeLink are ``strongly opposed to the solicitation of organs or organ donors by recipients or their agents through Web sites,'' the letter continued. ``After careful deliberation, we will not consider any living donor for you.'' Crionas was stunned by the decision. ``I was dumbfounded ... I'm, like, are you serious?'' The LifeLink letter said he could be put back on the national list to wait for a ``deceased'' kidney of someone who had made provisions to...

Iran's Sahar 1 TV station is currently airing a weekly series titled "For You, Palestine," or "Zahra's Blue Eyes." The series premiered on December 13, and is set in Israel and the West Bank. It broadcasts every Monday, and was filmed in Persian but subsequently dubbed into Arabic. The story follows an Israeli candidate for Prime Minister, Yitzhak Cohen, who is also the military commander of the West Bank. The opening sequence of the show contains graphic scenes of surgery, and images of a Palestinian girl in a hospital whose eyes have been removed, with bandages covering the sockets. In...

"What an incredible story", I thought as I read the article. But it wasn’t published in a prestigious medical journal. Rather, it was an article in the New Yorker Magazine written by Ian Parker about about Zell Kravinsky. Zell had given away almost his entire 45 million dollar real estate fortune to charity. Then he donated a kidney to save a young stranger’s life. He had even considered donating his other kidney and subjecting himself to kidney dialysis to save another young life. This is Sacrifice with a capital S! Yet thousands of his fellow citizens refuse to donate organs...

London 16.11.2004 | Time and again the rants of this deceitful woman are printed all over the internet and quite frankly I am getting fed up with it. Therefore I will again invite Eva Golinger to provide legal evidence of the crimes, she so happily attributes to opposition actors in Venezuela. To that end I will place here links to the relevant legislation so that it could be simpler, for her, to browse and publish the article or provision of Venezuelan laws that has been breached.

I am sorry for the vanity, but I hope that by posting it on a Friday night that I do as little damage to the forum as possible. There was an amazingly beautiful hymn performed at Reagan's State Funeral that I can't get out of my head, one that I wish to add to my personal collection. It is a marvelous performance that culminates with the grand organ adding itself to the youth choir that opened the hymn, adding depth and weight to the life they were celebrating. Can anyone in freeperdom help me identify it, and possibly point me...

Baby Who Received Eight-Organ Transplant Coos in Mom's Arms Mar 19, 2004 By Coralie Carlson/ Associated Press Writer MIAMI (AP) - Wearing a pink dress, an Italian infant who received eight new organs in a single transplant operation cried and cooed Friday as her mother cradled her and said she looked forward to her daughter's future. "Her biggest feeling is happiness," said a doctor interpreting for Monica di Matteo, 39, mother of cherubic 7 1/2-month-old Alessia di Matteo. The transplant surgery was done seven weeks ago but not announced until Thursday. Mother and baby appeared at a news conference Friday...

Kidney donor pushes his altruism to the extremeBy Stephanie StromThe New York Times PHILADELPHIA — Having given one kidney to a total stranger, Zell Kravinsky was sipping an orange-mango Snapple and, unprompted, making a case for giving away his other one. "What if someone needed it who could produce more good than me?" Kravinsky said last week. "What if I was a perfect match for a dying scientist who was the intellectual driving force behind a breakthrough cure for cancer or AIDS or on the brink of unlocking the secrets of cell regeneration?" The consequences of Kravinsky giving away his...

Apropos of nothing much, I thought some others would want to listen to the lovely music at this link. It's Bach organ music--lovely stuff for wrapping up a Sunday.

Wyoming high in organ donors By Allison Fashek Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE – Suzanne and Wayne Robinson of Cheyenne know how important it is to talk to family members about organ donation. Wayne recalls a conversation he had with their oldest son, Chris, right around the time the teenager was applying for his driver’s license. “He asked me, ‘What should I do?’” said Wayne, a construction manager. “I told him the choice was his, but the idea was that if something happened to him down the road, it was an important decision. He thought it was a good...

I’ve written for The Twilight Zone. Let me take you there. It’s yearbook photo day for Springfield Junior High’s class of 2025. Jason’s been avoiding getting his picture taken. His teacher wonders why until she looks in a yearbook from a generation ago and finds a photo of a student who looks identical to Jason. A mandatory reporter, Jason’s teacher phones authorities. They investigate, arrest Jason’s father for violation of the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, and place Jason in a foster home. This law isn’t science fiction. H.R. 534 has already been passed by the United States House...

Jan. 30 – The AMA has expressed its outrage at a proposed law in New Mexico that could make some motorcyclists into forced organ donors. The proposal, introduced in the New Mexico Legislature by state Sen. Allen Hurt (R-Waterflow), would allow the harvesting of organs from any motorcyclist who doesn't wear a helmet and is declared brain dead as a result of an accident. Hurt's bill, designated Senate Bill 239, specifically states that: "a person operating a motorcycle without a helmet and who, as the result of an accident, is pronounced brain dead pursuant to Section 12-2-4 NMSA 1978 by...

For organ transplant candidates, death by communist propaganda... by Greg Swann In the Jewish World Review Amitai Etzioni shows us how freedom's best enemies are her so-called friends: That said, I see a danger in paying for doing things we ought to do out of moral commitment. Furthermore, when we turn organs into a commodity, we lose the sense of closeness people have when they act as family or friends rather than as traders.Now carrots are sold cash-and-carry. There's a profound moral commitment involved--thousands of 'em--but none that Etzioni would approve of. The thing is, I have my choice...

News Life from death: Four alive from teen's decision Candy Priano gets a hug from one of those who formed a human chain around Enloe Medical Center Jan. 24, praying for her daughter Kristie, who lay inside with injuries from a car crash. Kristie's brother Steven has his hand on his mother's back. (Ty Barbour/Enterprise-Record) By LARRY MITCHELL - Staff WriterMany of the 6,439 Americans who died waiting for organ transplants last year would be alive today if only more organs were available.And more organs would be available if more people would make their wishes known.Many people don't know...

Thursday, 22 August, 2002, 16:39 GMT 17:39 UK Cloned pigs raise transplant hopes World's first "double-knockout" pigs By Richard Black BBC Science Correspondent A British biotechnology company is claiming a breakthrough in the quest to create organs for transplant from pigs into humans. PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh in Scotland, says it has created the first so-called "double knock-out" pigs, genetically-engineered to lack both copies of a gene which causes rejection. Scientists have given a mixed reaction to the claim. Some experts say it represents a genuine advance, while others caution that it is one small step along a very...

Thursday, 22 August, 2002, 16:39 GMT 17:39 UK Cloned pigs raise transplant hopes World's first "double-knockout" pigs By Richard Black BBC Science Correspondent A British biotechnology company is claiming a breakthrough in the quest to create organs for transplant from pigs into humans. PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh in Scotland, says it has created the first so-called "double knock-out" pigs, genetically-engineered to lack both copies of a gene which causes rejection. Scientists have given a mixed reaction to the claim. Some experts say it represents a genuine advance, while others caution that it is one small step along a very...