I’ll just go ahead and say that I’m not an organ donor. I’ve always wanted to be. I just never went through the trouble of finding out how I can become an official organ donor. I want to be cremated when I die so I’m not particular about keeping my organs or keeping my body intact. My only fear about being an organ donor is related to the unconfirmed fear that doctors are less likely to try to revive you if you are close to death and are listed as an organ donor. It sounds silly. No doctor/surgeon would want a dead body on their watch. But it’s one of those sneaky ideas that creep into the back of your mind and you employ the “better safe than sorry” rule and act irrationally. It’s kind of like breaking a mirror when you aren’t superstitious but you still feel a tinge of apprehension. It’s amazing what cultural superstition can do to you.

Anyway, I’ve had this NYTimes news story bookmarked in my favorites for awhile now and am just now getting the chance to write about it. It’s giving me reason to hesitate to become an organ donor.

“In what transplant experts believe is the first such case in the country, prosecutors have charged the surgeon, Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh, with prescribing excessive and improper doses of drugs, apparently in an attempt to hasten Mr. Navarro’s death to retrieve his organs sooner.”

“Ms. Navarro has filed a civil suit against Dr. Roozrokh, the donor network and other doctors in the operating room, and has settled a lawsuit against the hospital. A spokesman for the hospital, Ron Yukelson, said a plan to correct the problems had been accepted by federal health officials.

Ms. Navarro said she remained angry about the way her son’s life ended.

‘He didn’t deserve to be like that, to go that way,” she said. “He died without dignity and sympathy and without respect.’ “