This morning I read an article about a Romanian doctor who is charged with overseeing an operation (LOL; get it? Ugh) where a team of doctors were extracting valuable implants from dead or near-dead patients.
Yep, that’s right. They were harvesting medical implants like pacemakers. Not the organs themselves. I suppose if someone has implants to keep their organs going there’s not much value in those organs. But the implants could be reused. I guess. Couldn’t they?
Ok. Aside from Dr. Creepenstein who was stealing them without patient or family consent, would it be ok to reuse these devices? If the patient or family gave proper permission — like a regular organ donor program — and the device was still working and able to be properly sanitized, could this be a real thing? Is it already?
It seems gross but really no more so than organ donations. I think I’d be ok with this if consent was given. It might save someone else’s life someday.
And I understand that unlike natural body organs like hearts and livers and kidneys you can always make new devices for the next patient (although they’re getting really close to making the natural organs too). Perhaps the med device manufacturers would be the primary ones opposing this recycling effort, but if the medical professionals said this was a benefit to the world I think I’d be ok with it.
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BTW, if you’re not signed up to be an organ donor, please consider it. You can literally save a life, even if it’s not your own. https://www.organdonor.gov/sign-up
