Two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday accused the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) of having used “unethical methods” to trick district prosecutors into issuing death certificates for potential organ donors, in an apparent bid to undermine the integrity of physician-turned-independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Ko once served as convener of the hospital’s organ procurement team and the director of its emergency care team since 2008.
During a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, physician-turned-legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said he had “heard” from two top medical professionals that the hospital had given high doses of phentolamine to dozens of accident victims who were potential organ donors in the past 15 years, with the doses causing such dramatic drops in blood pressure that the patients’ hearts stopped beating.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“The hospital’s doctors subsequently connected the patients to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation [ECMO] machine to improve the viability of their organs and inserted an occlusion balloon catheter through the left femoral artery to block blood from flowing toward the heart,” Liao said.
After a district attorney and coroner arrived, the doctors then turned down the ECMO machine so the heart would stop so that “a death certificate could be issued,” Liao said.
“Such practices were not only carried out in a legal ‘gray area,’ but were a major violation of medical ethics,” Liao said.
“They used every possible means to stop the patients’ hearts and keep their organs fresh. They murdered potential donors solely to be able to retrieve their organs and someone else’s life,” he said.
In his criticism, physician-turned lawmaker Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) cited an English-language paper, “Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support of donor abdominal organs in non-heart-beating donors,” published in the journal Clinical Transplantation in 2000, that lists Ko as the first author, hinting that Ko had also taken part in what Su called “an immoral practice.”
“Doctors are not God. It is not up to them to decide who lives or dies,” Su said, urging the Ministry of Health and Welfare to investigate the allegations.
Article 4 of the Regulation Governing the Transplantation and Allocation of Human Organs (人體器官移植分配及管理辦法) stipulates that an organ retrieval procedure can only be performed on individuals that have been declared clinically dead.
The hospital’s organ donation guidelines state that brain death can be used to determine death if the potential donor fits the criteria for being brain dead.
Otherwise, cardiac death should be used as the basis for declaring death, it states.
Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Hsu Ming-neng (許銘能) said the ministry would investigate whether the alleged procedures were carried out before or after the patients were declared brain dead.
“If it was the former scenario, then it did break the laws,” Hsu said.
Wang Tsung-hsi (王宗曦), director of the ministry’s Department of Medical Affairs, said connecting a patient who has been pronounced medically dead to an ECMO machine is often intended to allow blood flow to the body’s organs and does not pose any legal concerns.
The hospital declined to comment on the accusations, saying only that it would cooperate with the ministry’s investigation.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS