Fetal Organ Donation
In response to the letter to the editor by Susan C. Rempel on Dec. 6, I am compelled to respond to her obvious lack of understanding and misdirected energies. Ms. Rempel has apparently interpreted the fetal medicine articles by Barry Siegel (Nov. 16-19) to mean that all decisions are those of physicians and not patients.
The very essence of this field dictates that the parents of the fetus are the most important part of the decision-making process. It is the health-care team who must provide the information in both an open, direct and honest fashion. We are not meant to play God but rather provide information available with emerging technologies. I point out that the article, time and again, emphasized that “I would not take coercive steps to make a woman and her family do anything, it is their choice.”
To clarify any apparent misunderstanding about the use of anencephalic fetuses as organ donors, we are required by law to fully inform and obtain consent from the parents. The choice that a parent can make of donating a heart, an eye, or a liver to a child destined to die without it, when their child is destined to die for certainty, seems not only logical but displays a caring, considerate, and psychologically positive attitude. It is both surprising and incomprehensible that anyone would believe that Dr. Harrison, myself, or other physicians in these circumstances would do so without the express consent of the families involved.
At a recent state Senate subcommittee hearing on the disabled called by Sen. Milton Marks in San Francisco, the first person to testify was a woman who had an anencephalic fetus and, because of the law, was not allowed to donate the heart or liver for other children doomed to die without it. She was most depressed about this and desired to see the law changed.
On a separate note, I am rather surprised at the impressions that were left in Ms. Rempel’s mind about our pregnancy. Let me point out that my wife and I are partners in conception. We are partners in child rearing and partners in the love and support of our children. Certainly, my wife does not fear me, but has respect for me and my knowledge, as I do for hers. Surely, if she wished, my wife could have had the amniocentesis done. . . .
These issues are indeed far more complex than this brief series can portray. Let me remind her that my mission in life is to be a compassionate, caring human being attempting to alleviate the suffering of others. . . .
LAWRENCE D. PLATT, M.D.
Los Angeles