New York Proposes 'Presumed Consent' Organ Harvesting Law

Thursday April 29, 2010
By Kathleen Gilbert
NEW YORK

(LifeSiteNews.com) - Citing the shortage in organs available for transplant, a state assemblyman in New York has proposed that all citizens of the state become automatically enrolled as candidates for organ harvesting.

New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has introduced a new bill in Albany that aims to enroll all New Yorkers as organ donors unless they take action to opt out.

If passed, Brodsky's bill would become the first such law the U.S. However, a similar bill was also introduced in Illinois earlier this year.

"We have 10,000 New Yorkers on the list today waiting for organs. We import half the organs we transplant. It is an unacceptable failed system," Brodsky said, according to CBS News 2. Brodsky pointed to other nations who have passed similar laws that now are in force "without a lot of controversy." the rest

Despite the altruistic goal of such legislation, the current practice of organ harvesting has increasingly alarmed the pro-life community, as evidence continues to surface that the prerequisite "brain death" is often defined to ease the process of collecting fresher organs, rather than according to whether a person has actually died. The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine confirmed these fears in a 2008 article that backed up the notion that "brain dead" patients are often, in fact, still alive.