The companies said the language was needed to increase the supply of organs. But under the law, “anatomical gifts” also covered skin, bone and other tissues, which the companies argued were needed to help patients through procedures such as back surgeries. The language also expanded the allowed uses of the donated body parts beyond transplantation to research of any kind.At the suggestion of the industry and advocates of organ transplants, the drafters added a section modeled on a Texas law.
The medical examiners’ group wrote that the proposed law contradicted the legal mandate of medical examiners to collect and preserve evidence and determine the cause of death. And it questioned why the procurement of tissues should be given the same priority as organ donation. Jeffrey Taylor, then the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, joined Pierre-Louis in opposing the legislation. His office wrote in a letter to lawmakers that the removal of organs or tissue could compromise prosecutions of homicides, a problem that had plagued the district for nearly two decades. In homicide investigations, the letter said, “it may be as important to establish what did not kill the decedent as what did.
Robert Hale, supervisor of tissue operations at Donor Network West in Northern California, called the growth in donated body parts “astounding,” in a 2016 presentation. From 2011 to 2015, the number of donors of bone, skin and other tissue recovered by the company increased 88%, from 1,214 to 2,280, he said.
The companies now harvest so much tissue from Americans that they are increasingly exporting it overseas.Do you have a story to share about the donation of tissue or organs during a death investigation? Members of the Uniform Law Commission told The Times they are pleased with the results of the revised act.
“They do it to develop a relationship with us,” Schmidt, chief coroner of Orleans County, told The Times. He said he previously opposed procurement of tissues before the autopsy but “had my mind changed.” That wasn’t because the companies “had their checkbook there to pick up a happy hour,” he said, but because “they are educating us that donation can be done without jeopardizing our cases.”
Jonathan Jacobs, director of John Jay College’s Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics, said medical examiners and coroners are public officials with crucial responsibilities who should not be allowed to accept gifts or industry payments. In St. Louis, the city’s chief medical examiner, Michael Graham, sat on the board of Mid-America Transplant for 27 years, according to his resume. Company financial reports show Mid-America paid him $500 to $2,000 a year since at least 2004.
Bacha told The Times the statistics were “absolutely false.” He said he supported organ donation but had lost trust in a company after he allowed procurement in the case of a possible drug overdose. The Center for Organ Recovery & Education in Pittsburgh promised to save a blood sample so he could test drug levels, he said, but never delivered, leaving the cause of death uncertain. Instead he used evidence at the scene to decide it was a heroin overdose, he said.
The procurement companies have become so influential at the medical examiners’ association that their executives now sit on the group’s board of directors. The association’s current chairman is Kim Collins, medical director of tissue recovery services at We Are Sharing Hope SC, a large procurement company in South Carolina.
Criminal. and sickening.
Because...politicians? Because...lobbyists? Because...money?
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