Advocates say more lives can be saved
(NEWSER) - New organ donation rules currently under consideration would make it easier for surgeons to retrieve organs for transplant after a donor’s heart stops beating—but opponents fear the changes will contribute to a culture of doctors “hovering, hovering, hovering to get more organs,” says one. The proposed rule changes involve the guidelines for donations after cardiac death, or DCD, which accounted for just 6% of organ donations last year. The proposed changes would allow doctors to retrieve organs right away, rather than waiting two minutes to see if the heart starts beating again on its own, and would also lift the ban on considering a patient as a possible donor until doctors and family members decide to halt further treatment on that patient. More»
