Body Parts

An intrepid reader alerts us to a piece in the Watertown Public Opinion on SB 197, which concerns organ donation.  There is no link to the actual opinion piece, but here is an excerpt:

The state Senate wants organ, tissue and eye banks and other organizations to be able to harvest body parts much easier and faster from dead or dying persons in South Dakota.  Senators voted 35-0 Tuesday for legislation that gives harvesters----formally known as procurement organizations----first priority in the process of deciding whether a person's body parts should be donated.

 

Harvesters would move ahead of the spouse, children, siblings or other family members.

 

The measure, SB 197, now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.

 

The legislation would reverse a key principle of existing law.

 

Currently the spouse is first on the list of who decides whether donations should occur; followed by other family members.

 

The legislation would move from last to first on that list the harvesting organizations and others who have legal responsibility to dispose of a body.

 

The proposed law would allow a procurement organization to override a family member's wishes.

Sounds pretty gruesome to me.  This bill leads us one step closer to seeing the human body as nothing but material to be harvested, like we harvest corn or slaughter cows.  Incidentally, the related issue of buying and selling human organs is something of a hot topic in bio-ethics.  And argument against an organ market is here, while the argument for is here.  Currently it is illegal to sell body parts.