The Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry and Patient Autonomy Promotion Center on Thursday denied allegations that an organ donation surgery at an unnamed hospital was illegal.
The hospital received a patient who, while in a critical state, was still connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine when the hospital brought in prosecutors to examine the patient, a source said.
This violated due procedure of ascertaining if the patient was clinically dead, saying that it strayed close to organ harvesting, the source added.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The patient was a young male who was hospitalized after an accident, center president Lee Ming-che (李明哲) said, adding that he did not have a heartbeat when he was brought in.
While the man was resuscitated, his condition was unstable, and he had dilated pupils, a symptom of an arterial rupture, and suffered from pericardial effusion, Lee said.
The man was in a deep coma and was close to brain death, while his blood pressure was kept stable only through the connection to the ECMO machine, Lee said.
The man’s family had stated their wish not to prolong his suffering and wanted him to have a dignified death, Lee said.
The hospital regarded the possibility of recovery as slim and that it was difficult for the patient to achieve the legal definition of brain death, Lee said, adding that it had communicated with the family and obtained written agreement to initiate donation after cardiac death (DCD) procedures.
Under Taiwanese law, one can only be considered brain dead if they were on life support for a full 12 hours.
Once the hospital completed the organ donation procedures, it contacted the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office to dispatch a prosecutor and coroner to examine the patient.
According to Article 218 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), if a person dies or is suspected of dying from an unnatural cause, “the public prosecutor having competent jurisdiction shall immediately examine him.”
Following the coroner’s examination and the prosecutor ascertaining that the man’s family had signed the organ donation document of their own volition and that they were aware of what the DCD process entailed, the hospital commenced with the process and disconnected the patient from the ECMO, Lee said.
The doctors waited the required five minutes and, after ascertaining that his heart did not start beating again, officially pronounced the man clinically dead, which was corroborated by an examination by the coroner, Lee said.
The operation followed procedure and could not be faulted in terms of medical practice, law or ethics, Lee said.
However, the center would convene with experts to discuss how to overcome the slight disconnect that such procedures experienced between the medical and legal departments, Lee added.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
RSS