The Useful Dead VIII

We pro-lifers spend a lot of time talking about when life begins. Another important question is when life ends. Zach Dunlap almost found out the hard way.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap says he feels "pretty good."

Dunlap was pronounced dead Nov. 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested.

As family members were paying their last respects, he moved his foot and hand. He reacted to a pocketknife scraped across his foot and to pressure applied under a fingernail. After 48 days in the hospital, he was allowed to return home, where he continues to work on his recovery...

Dunlap, 21, of Frederick, said he has no recollection of the crash.

"I remember a little bit that was about an hour before the accident happened. But then about six hours before that, I remember," he said.

Dunlap said one thing he does remember is hearing the doctors pronounce him dead.

"I'm glad I couldn't get up and do what I wanted to do," he said.

His father, Doug, said he saw the results of the brain scan.

"There was no activity at all, no blood flow at all."

I have a vague memory that there was once a Twilight Zone episode along these lines; I think they found out the man was alive by seeing a tear roll down his cheek. This case, however, is real. Zach actually heard himself pronounced dead. It's a chilling thought.

I must say I'm confused about this concept of "brain death." If the test shows no blood flow to the brain, it seems to me either the test must be wrong or the human brain is capable of things we don't understand - like surviving without a blood supply. Obviously Zach wasn't dead, but he was about to have his organs harvested anyway.

The AP story fails to point out that the person who scraped the knife on Zach's foot was not part of the medical team. It was a cousin who had a feeling that Zach wasn't gone just yet. The other doctors and nurses who were supposed to know what was happening clearly did not. The big question is whether this was simple mistake, or a more sinister attempt to acquire Zach's organs for other patients. I have nothing against organ transplants. In fact, I know someone who desperately needs one right now. I'm pretty sure my friend would not want someone else to die needlessly in the process.

So, when does life end? How do we know? And how can we acquire organs for people who need them without taking life away from people, like Zach, who might be able to recover? All good questions, and I don't have answers. Here's one more question: how many other people have heard themselves pronounced brain dead, and gone on to actually feel their organs being cut out? There's a Twilight Zone story to think about.

The Useful Dead VII

WARNING: This post may be sickening.

In previous installments of this series we discussed how dead humans are being used as organ donors, egg donors, cosmetic products, and museum displays. As if these aren't ghastly enough, the supposedly "developing" Chinese are reported to have taken the final step: cannibalism.

"New macabre manifestations of this conscienceless abortion mentality include the recent opening of five restaurants in the region of X, which began serving 'fetal soup' at the price of 300 Yuan (approximately $40) a bowl! Recent medical publications have praised the exceptional health benefits for the consuming of 'fetal remains' (this jargon allows them to overlook what this really is-unborn baby bodies). Therefore, local entrepreneurs jumped on the opportunity to distribute this new health breakthrough to the chosen few who could afford the price. So evil and scandalous is this fetal soup trade that the Government shut down the Web sites advertising the restaurants, in fear that they would scandalize the reputation of the People's Republic to outside countries and businesses. [source]

That's not all. Chinese women who are lucky enough not to be eaten before birth now face the risk of being married after death.

"Is it possible that the abortion holocaust and its rejection of life's sacred dignity has also contributed to the recent practice of 'ghost wives,' as recently reported in Chinese news sources? This is the practice of providing a woman's dead body to be buried with a deceased man so that the man will have company in the 'next life.' Distributors of the dead bodies of women found that men were willing to pay much more for a 'new' dead body of a woman, rather than one previously preserved. Murder of women from out-of-the-way places ensued to fill the new demand for the fresh ghost wives.

I haven't been able to find any other source for these ghastly stories. I sincerely hope they are not true. I would like to think that humans can't possibly sink so low.

But I know that we can.

The Useful Dead VI

Remarkable news from China:

BEIJING (AFP) - China will formally ban the trade in human organs from May 1, state media reported, amid ongoing allegations that the nation's military is involved in harvesting organs from executed prisoners.

The regulation, issued by the State Council, or China's cabinet, does not apply to transplants of human tissue such as cells, corneas or bone marrow, the Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

"This is the first regulation of its kind introduced by the central government, and it is a milestone in the country's organ transplant history," vice health minister Huang Jiefu was quoted as saying...

The new regulation "stipulates that human organ transplants should respect the principle of voluntary and free donation and makes it a crime to harvest organs without the owner's permission or against his will," Xinhua said.

The law, which forbids the use of organs from minors, aims to "safeguard citizens' lawful rights" and ensure the quality of transplant surgery, it added. MORE

It's about time. Some in China have apparently been selling organs harvested from prisoners for some time now. Whether the new law will actually stop this practice remains to be seen, of course. But it's a step.

The Useful Dead V

Another creative use for the remains of your dearly departed: donate them to Body Worlds so they can be plasticized and then posed for public viewing in a variety of imaginative positions. What better way to teach the kids about anatomy?

What remains unclear is where these bodies came from. One report says that many of the bodies at the Body Worlds exhibition in Chicago appear to have bullet holes at the base of the skull. This makes me suspect they are probably Chinese prisoners who were executed. Criminal though they may have been, somehow I doubt these people volunteered to have their remains paraded in front of the world in this way. Nor did they want their organs sold for profit.

I haven't been to this exhibit. Maybe it is tastefully done, though it's hard to imagine how. In any case, it's more evidence that we live in a ghastly reincarnation of the Roman Empire. What will be next?

The Useful Not-Dead

At least the Chinese have the courtesy not to extract organs from prisoners until after they are dead. South Carolina doesn't want to wait that long. A proposal there would allow prisoners to reduce their sentences in exchange for donating body parts.

There is a definite need for more donor organs - many people die while waiting for a suitable transplant specimen to become available. Assuming the prisoners are fully informed of the risks to their own health and are mentally capable of making a free decision, there may not be anything wrong with it.

On the other hand, I have a hard time reconciling this idea with the proper ends of justice, i.e. punishing and hopefully rehabilitating criminals. Reducing a sentence in exchange for a literal pound of flesh doesn't seem quite right. It also doesn't seem fair to those prisoners whose organs are not desirable, possibly through no fault of their own.

There are other ways to increase the supply of organs. How about we give them a try before we start harvesting prisoner bodies?

The Useful Dead IV

We have discussed before the ghastly Chinese practice of re-using the body parts of executed prisoners. Now consider the following story from this weekend.

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Two packages containing human body parts - including a liver and part of a head - meant for a medical research lab instead were delivered to a home.

The body parts, sent from China, were mistakenly dropped off Thursday at Franck and Ludivine Larmande's home by a DHL express driver who believed the bubble-wrapped items were pieces to a table.

``My husband started to unwrap one and said, 'This is strange, it looks like a liver,''' Ludivine Larmande said. ``He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear.

``Something wasn't right. It was scary, and I'm glad I didn't open them.''

The couple called Kent County sheriff's deputies, who determined the preserved body parts were for medical research, Lt. Roger Parent said.

Authorities believe 28 more bubble-wrapped human organs and body parts could be dispersed across the country, The Grand Rapids Press reported. Two of five packages headed to the northern Michigan lab broke open, scattering their contents. MORE

28 more? Is this an everyday thing? Exactly what was this mysterious lab in Michigan going to do with body parts from China? Whose parts were they, and under what circumstances were they removed? Somebody please tell us.

The Useful Dead III

The ends to which science will go to call down lightning from heaven continue to expand. Via Young Fogey comes this breakthrough. Scientists in the Netherlands and Israel (!) are working to harvest eggs from aborted little girls for later use with in-vitro fertilization. There is, apparently, a worldwide shortage of such eggs. Since there is no shortage of aborted babies, this would be a reproductive gold mine.

Professor Roger Gosden, director of the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in the US, told BBC News Online that there were a number of question marks, ethical and practical, over the use of foetal follicles to help people become pregnant.

However, he said that the research itself was worthwhile, because it might help doctors learn more about the process, even if it never led to foetal eggs being used in IVF.

He said: "Surely it's better to do some good with tissue than no good?" MORE

No, no, no. This isn't just "tissue." It's PEOPLE!!! How would you like to grow up knowing that your mother was an aborted baby? That's where we are headed. God help us.

I am beginning to suspect that The Useful Dead will become a regular feature of this blog. I will assign a topic heading and continue numbering future updates.

The Useful Dead, Jr.

Just yesterday I wrote about the apparent Chinese practice of harvesting organs from executed criminals. Now BBC Television is preparing to air a report about a hospital in Ukraine where newborn babies are mysteriously dying. Parents charge that the infants are killed and dismembered in order to harvest stem cells. The cells then go to a private clinic in Barbados to be used in cosmetic and anti-aging procedures.

Suspicious families in the Ukraine succeeding in ordering the exhumation of 30 newborn infants who died in the hospital. Arms and legs had been removed from some of the bodies. Doctors interviewed by BBC suggested this may indicate an attempt to remove stem cells from the bone marrow. A more detailed story is here. Warning: it's very graphic.

This is so disturbing I don't know where to begin. Let's start with the wealthy Americans whose vanity and desire to appear youthful is so overpowering they must fly to Barbados for surgery. Fine; they can spend their money however they want, but I can think of much better uses for it.

When recapturing one's youth requires the death of another youth, we have a problem. Sometimes the stem cells come from aborted babies. Patients who use these cells either don't care, or more likely have convinced themselves that the dead baby is less than human. Deep down, however, I think they know what they are doing. They are simply insulating themselves from a truth they don't want to face.

Suppose you are one of these patients. It doesn't have to be cosmetic; suppose you have some fatal disease. Your doctor shows you a baby in an incubator. You are told that your disease can be cured, but in order to do so this baby must die. What would you do? For many people, this would pose quite an ethical dilemma. Yourself or the child? The answer for any adult with an ounce of decency should be obvious: you don't harm a child, even at the cost of your own life. Period, end of story. That people even have to think twice about this tells you how low our society has fallen.

Wait, you say: these babies are going to die anyway via abortion. Regrettable, but perfectly legal. We might as well make something good come out of it. Not so fast. Yes, abortion is legal. Does that make it right? No. It is still an evil act no matter what status the civil government gives it. Using that evil because you think something good will result is still evil.

Anyway, in the Ukraine case it seems likely that many of these babies were healthy and killed for the express purpose of procuring stem cells:

"I gave birth to a healthy girl," Olena told me. "She was crying and moving her hands and legs. I was shown the baby. After that the girl was taken away. They told me everything was OK and I could see her the next day."

But that never happened. Olena was told the following day that her baby had died. But when she asked what had the death, the answers were inconsistent. "They told me three stories. One, she didn't have enough air to breathe; two, the lungs didn't open; and three, that her heart failed."

This doesn't sound like a mom who wanted her baby used for spare parts. Let's hope BBC and other media follow up on these allegations. It's a horrifying story that ought to exist only as a movie, but it's real. This is the world we live in.

The Useful Dead

Yahoo News reports that two white-collar criminals have been executed in China. Nothing unusual about that - the Chinese administer the death penalty even more enthusiastically than we do here in Texas. Something odd in the story caught my eye, though.

After the Supreme Court had confirmed the death sentences, the two were taken to a special mobile execution chamber for the lethal injections. MORE

First, the preferred method of execution in China, so far as I know, is a pistol shot to the back of the head. I have never heard of them using lethal injection. The Chinese government does not concern itself with avoiding "cruel & unusual" punishment as we do here in the U.S.

Even stranger, they have a "special mobile execution chamber." What's up with that? What does a mobile execution chamber look like? What do you need for a lethal injection besides a gurney and an IV? This makes no sense.

Or maybe it does make sense. Recall my previous post about China harvesting organs from condemned prisoners. Now the pieces come together. Suppose your plan is not only to kill the prisoners but also to do so cleanly and gently, so you can immediately begin removing organs in a sterile, efficient manner. In this case special facilities are a good idea.

If you want to keep the nature of the facilities quiet, you don't build one next to every courthouse. Better to have a mobile surgical suite that can be transported around the country to wherever executions are scheduled. Sort of a Winnebago of Death.

I'm not against the death penalty in principle, nor am I against organ donation. Combining the two in this manner, however, is just plain creepy.