On the News Today
Thursday, March 01, 2007
I read this on the Today newspaper, get this.
The Price of Delay - Postponement killed dreams of liver transplant patientThe article talks about how a crane operater Mr Sim Tee Hua was pronounced brain-dead and how his family asked to postpone the organ harvest by 24 hours and thus caused liver transplant patients to lose a liver because it had become unsuitable for transplant.
Now read the headline again. POSTPONEMENT KILLED dreams of liver transplant patient. Why do I get that the family members of Mr Sim are being villianized for hanging on to hope? Is it that bad that they need a bit more time to grieve that it has to be published on the newpaper that "in spite of a
ruckus created by his family members..." A ruckus??? Since when has bereavement become creating a
ruckus. I know that if right now, my loved ones were brain-dead, I'd be reluctant to pull the plug. There is a difference between brain-dead and dead-dead and that is breathing. Some people need time to come to terms with it. I strongly believe that Mr Sim's family need not have their struggle with the loss of their family member labelled as the killer of the transplant patients' dreams.
Now let me state for the record that I am not saying "well too bad" to the transplant patients. I am truly sorry that they were unable to get their new livers. No, what I
am saying is it is criminally insensitive for the writer of the article, Tan Hui Leng, to frame the issue in such a manner that people might be led to think that the family of the deceased were villians in the whole episode. They are victims too. They have lost a family member and are greaving. Price in delay? Then what about the family's own emotional closure. Should that be discarded then? What is the price of they emotional stress and who pays it?
Of course Minister Khaw Boon Wan brought it up in front of parliament yesterday. Here's a quote: "I'm sure he was fully aware of Hota (Human Organ Transplant Act) and the fact that if he did not opt out, that would mean he wanted to save lives in the event of a sudden death. So we should respect his wishes." He was of course implying that his family was not respecting the wishes of the deceased. So now the family members have become people who postponed respecting the wishes of a dead man and thus the people who has dashed the dreams of transplant patients. They are OBVIOUSLY not people who have lost family and thus deserving of our sympathy.
The fact that he did not opt out isn't an indication of his desire to save lives. The entire opt-out is designed to get the most number of organs, which is not a bad thing. But please try not to pretend that its otherwise. First of all, by making it opt-out, you're making it harder for people to not want to donate their organs and thus you get the organs of the people who are a bit lazy. Second, if some people are undecided about such and important decision, they push it aside until they think about it next time... which is never. Out of sight, out of mind. Third, you are able to increase the numbers some more by playing on the guilt factor. If they opt-out, they are taking active steps in depriving someone of a chance at life rather than taking active steps to give someone a chance at life. Terribly different psychologically and you get more organs yet again.
I am not discounting that many do sincerely want to save lives but at the same time, let's not pretend to be naive and say that everyone who didn't opt out did so because of a desire to save lives. It's a lie. You know it. I know it. We all know it. I get that the ends are desirable and the motives are altruistic so I applaude the use of methods which are suspect to achieve the ends. It is undoubtedly effective. But try not to insult our collective intelligence by making fallacious statements like "if he did not opt out, that would mean..." Don't just make statements like that simply because they support your case. It makes for a weak argument.
Next time I'll get started on Estate Duties.
Things on my mind:
Ritz-Carlton
GeForce 8800
AngPao
Texas Hold`em
Boobs
Sprouting Nonsense Since 1984 {11:56 pm}
