X-Message-Number: 1484
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 09:16:26 EST
From: 
Subject: CRYONICS Nelson mandatory organ donation plan

There is an article on "mandatory" organ donations in the Poughkeepsie
Journal (with a byline of The Associated Press) this morning.  It
outlines a proposal by James L. Nelson of the "Communitarian Network".
There is a loophole in the plan:
 "His plan specified that people could opt not to have their organs
removed if they objected on religious or philosophical grounds or
simply found the idea disturbing.
  Their wishes would be noted in a national computer registry, on their
driver's license and when they check into a hospital.  Family members
also could act on their behalf.
...
  Nelson said a 1978 Georgia law could serve as a model.  It provides
that, upon a request from an eye bank, an eye or corneal tissue may be
removed from a newly-dead person as long as the person had raised no
advance objection and none is raised by relatives."

Two people listed as objecting to the plan are Andrew Kimbrell, policy
director of the Foundation on Economic Trends and Robert Royal, vice
president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The article doesn't give an address for any of the organizations
described, so it is not clear how to contact anyone for more details.
Given the information in the article, it appears to me that all we will
need to do is to add a few more forms to the suspension paperwork to
avoid having this organ donation proposal interfere with our
suspensions.  Does anyone have more information?
                                                  -Jeffrey Soreff

standard disclaimer: I do not speak for my employer.

[ See messages 1178 1180 1181 1199 1200 1213 on the organ donation
  law topic. - KQB ]

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