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My wife is an operating room nurse. She sometimes participates in organ transplants. She tells me that there is an anesthesiologist present and giving anesthesia drugs, contradicting the article. The way she describes it they open you up and cut your abdominal aorta, at which point the anesthesiologist leaves the room because you are fully dead. Then they harvest organs and tissues as fast as they can. The people being harvested are clearly, permanently beyond help. The harvests are scheduled to coincide with major surgeries for the recipients. They usually take place in the very early morning as preparation for the transplant later that day.

If I am on a respirator, and will be for the rest of my life, go ahead and harvest me.

I disagree with the conclusion and implications of this article. I also dislike how it implies that organ harvesting doctors have evil motives without coming out and saying it. The factual error that I saw, just as a husband of a transplant worker, also detract from the validity of the article.




Without commenting on the rest of the article: The claim being made, as I understand it, is that the anesthesiologist is there and administers drugs to paralyze but not to anesthetize. So the presence of an anesthesiologist administering drugs does not necessary contradict the claims of the article unless you wife can confirm that the drugs both paralyze and anesthetize the patient. </pedantry>


Yes, but the original article is spreading misinformation. Anesthesia is always used during organ harvests.




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