Court Case Revives Organ Donor Debate
A California doctor is in court fighting for his freedom in a case that involves the life and death of a disabled young man whose organs were to be harvested for transplanting.
Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh, of the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, faces three felony charges for the events surrounding the 2006 death of Ruben Navarro, 25, who had a rare metabolic disorder that caused him to be disabled and brain damaged. Roozrokh allegedly administered excessive and improper medications in order to hasten Navarro’s death so his liver and kidneys could be used for organ transplants.
If convicted, Roozrokh faces as many as eight years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty of all charges. By the time of his death, Navarro’s organs had deteriorated past the point of being acceptable for transplanting.
Many members of the medical community involved with organ donations say the difference between life and death is usually much more obvious than it was in Navarro’s case.
Concerns have been voiced from a wide audience that it is inappropriate for the same physician and medical team to be involved with end-of-life care when they are also involved with subsequent organ transplants. Critics of the practice want two separate teams of medical personnel to be involved in transplant cases as a measure to prevent this type of situation from occurring.
Others voice concern that this very rare case will generate a backlash against organ donations in general, leading to fewer viable organs becoming available for transplanting.
Regardless of the outcome of the case, ethicists and physicians alike hope the controversy surrounding the case leads to reinforcement of scrupulously correct donor procedures in all medical institutions.
The New York Times carries more complete coverage of this case.
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Wow that’s pretty messed up, yo.
it may sound cruel but I wouldn’t consent to marking my driver’s license as a donor, I mean, think about, if someone who is a donor ends up in the emergency room and another guy who is not, both with the same life threatening condition… something tells me that the docs will try to save the guy who’s not a donor, but the other guy, since he’s a donor, they may try to salvage. Don’t get me wrong, I am talking about a situation where both guys have similar life threatning wounds and the emergency must pick one to save first. Who will they pick?
This is a hyopthetical scenario, but it may come true, can’t it?
CRISTOPHER - you’re a dimwit
8 years? EIGHT YEARS FOR MURDER?????? That just shows,once again, that the disabled are not valued the same as people who dont have disabilities. If that had been just an average joe, the guy would be facing life in prison, MINIMUM.
oh and yes I am an organ donor. I am also a person with a disability, and I think that should be the real debate here: Is it proper for a DOCTOR to decide for someone mentally and physically compromised, whether or not their life should be terminated? I think we are in a dangerous place when doctors have that power. I’m not talking about critically ill people who can consent, or people who have let their families make that decision. I am talking about a young man whose life was cut short, because the doctor had an agenda, and he didnt think anyone would care if there was one less disabled person in this world. I wish I could be on the sentencing jury.
It is not surprising that it seems that the person that wrote this short article only mentioned that the young male victim to be disabled as a way to justify the doctor’s decision to hasten his death. The article does not mention anything about disability groups being outraged. I am sure Not Dead Yet has something to say about the eight years.
I am an organ donor and a person with a disability. I am not surprised about the young man being devalued because of his disability. Eight years!!!???