Culture of death, the reality show

Yesterday, the New York Times carried this little blurb from the AP apparently, about a rogue doctor who decided his patient should die

A surgeon was charged with prescribing excessive drugs to a disabled patient to hasten his death and harvest his organs for transplantation. Prosecutors in San Luis Obispo County said the surgeon, Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, of San Francisco, gave a harmful drug and prescribed excessive doses of morphine and an anti-anxiety drug to 26-year-old Ruben Navarro, who was born with a metabolic disorder. Mr. Navarro died in 2006. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the drugs were prescribed “to accelerate Mr. Navarro’s death in order to recover his organs.” Dr. Roozrokh’s lawyer, Gerald Schwartzbach, did not immediately comment.

Today, they carried this update:

The lawyer for a surgeon charged with prescribing excessive drugs to a disabled patient to speed up his death and harvest his organs says his client has been the subject of a “witch hunt.” The doctor, Hootan Roozrokh, was charged on Monday in the nation’s first such criminal case against a transplant doctor, the San Luis Obispo County district attorney’s office said. M. Gerald Schwartzbach, Dr. Roozrokh’s lawyer, called the charges “unfounded and ill advised.” “Nothing that Dr. Roozrokh did or said at the hospital that night adversely affected the quality of Mr. Navarro’s life or contributed to Mr. Navarro’s eventual death,” Mr. Schwartzbach said in a statement.t

Where’s the follow-through reporting? What about the “harmful drug” and the “excessive doses” of other drugs? So Roozrokh is a “transplant doctor”? Did anybody at the Times or AP ask any questions about this connection to…an obvious motive?

While we’re largely ignoring these stories, activists are redefining death in order to help people die for all sorts of reasons, including the ability to harvest organs because the demand constantly exceeds the supply. It’s happening across the world, and it’s getting bizarre. This Dutch TV show is just one example.

A reality TV stunt condemned as sick and unethical around the world may have actually achieved its aims. The Dutch health ministry said thousands had registered to donate organs since the show aired.

More than 12,000 people in the Netherlands have registered as organ donors since the broadcast of “The Big Donorshow” on June 1, when three contestants vied for the kidney of a dying woman.

The show was revealed to be a hoax at the end of the broadcast, with the role of the “Lisa,” who was purportedly suffering from a brain tumor, being played by an actress.

This is all sick. And it’s being ‘justified’.

The Dutch television network BNN and producers Endemol said they wanted to highlight the desperate need for organ donors in the Netherlands, which has once of the lowest organ donation rates in Europe.

That stunt probably contributed to this British official to launch an outcry against an aggressive campaign proposed there to give government more power over citizens’….bodies.

A Plan to combat the organ transplant crisis by treating everyone as a donor unless they opt out has come under fire. Jonathan Morgan, Tory shadow Assembly health minister, has criticised the move put forward by chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson.

Mr Morgan said he believed it would be better if steps were taken to encourage more people to sign up.

He said: “It cannot be right that a person automatically becomes the property of the state in the event of their death.

“It would be far better to properly promote, fund and support campaigns to persuade people to become organ donors.”

Be informed about this stuff while you can still do something about it. Thanks to Cheryl at Compassionate Healthcare Network for this heads up, and the network’s extensive resources.