Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster
Monday, August 16, 2010 :::
A terminally ill fellow in Georgia wants to donate his organs before his natural death, combining ethicists' concerns about doctor-assisted suicide with those of living altruistic donors. The organs are in better shape when the patient is in better shape, though in this case my impression is that insisting that he deteriorate further before being harvested would not significantly worsen the outcome for the organ recipients; there's a rather bigger difference in organ value between almost dead and dead (or, especially, dead for a few hours) than between his current state and where he's likely to be later on.