I came across a news story floating amidst the news feed on Facebook that struck home for me as I am a relatively new father. This story involves a father and a son from England and their journey through a hospital nightmare. (Full story linked here) To keep it short, what essentially happened was this man's son was involved in a car accident that left him in a hospital with major injuries. He was placed in a medically induced coma to help him recover, yet doctors soon afterwards claimed that he was brain dead and wanted to harvest his organs while still fresh. The father refused to believe the doctors and brought in different doctors for a second opinion. The second opinion stated that there was still brain wave activity occurring in his son and that he wasn't "brain dead". Well, the second opinion proved invaluable as his son made a full and complete recovery. Why were the first doctors at the hospital so eager to rush and proclaim this young man brain dead? It was obviously so they could harvest his organs, but it still boggles my mind as to how they could place this young man in a medically induced coma and then claim that he was "brain dead". This just solidifies my disgust with modern medicine, and the sad state of hospitals these days. Before I get criticized, I am not intending to slam the whole medical industry here. I know that hospitals and doctors play a vital role in emergency services and other illnesses, but to hear of this story and others like it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
For many people, or maybe not that many, there is always a consideration floating around in the back of our minds as to how long we would want to be kept alive if there was proof that we could make a full recovery. In essence, we have that debate in our minds as to when we would want the plug pulled on ourselves. Some people never want the plug pulled, hoping that modern medicine will find a way of bringing them back to fully functional human beings. Others say don't even try to keep me alive, what happens will happen. This story brings to light an interesting scenario however in that the people we are supposed to trust with providing the proper diagnoses on a possible recovery are the same ones that are rushing to proclaim a brain "dead" in order to snatch organs. How do we factor human negligence, or even dare I say, greed, into our decision of how long to keep a life going? It definitely made me pause and think. Now lets take into consideration that you are the decision maker for someone who is in that situation. What would you do? Would you take the word of the first doctors opinion, in which case a human life would needlessly be ended, or do you seek other opinions in hopes that a different outcome might reveal itself? It is murky waters we tread here with no clear answer. We could go on debating the pros and the cons, but it all boils down to how good of a job are the doctors doing who are in charge of making diagnoses on a life.
Personally, I wouldn't want to be kept alive past the point of medical insanity. If there is a chance that I can be saved and brought back to being a fully functional human being, then let me live. But if there is any question as to the state of my brain or my full recovery, I would want the plug pulled. Now, however, I may want the person in charge to get a second opinion if the latter is the case du jour. I for one, while trusting doctors out of necessity when needed, don't particularly care for the profession as a whole. I know, I know, they do in fact help people who need it and they are necessary, but it doesn't mean I have to like them on an everyday basis. But it is what it is, some doctors are good, some evil it seems. Its unfortunate that a few doctors whose only desire is to harvest organs cast a bad image over even more doctors and calls into question their motives. I for one wouldn't even want to imagine myself being in that father's footsteps having to make a decision about my son and whether or not to have his organs harvested. Just can't imagine it and hopefully I will never be in that situation. But for now, let us only hope that some changes come to the way patients are handled in hospitals. Let us hope that they can be treated more as patients and not as potential organ donors. Let us hope that we will never be put in a situation such as the one highlighted in the story and forced to decide about a loved one's life.
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