The US Department of Health and Human Services has uncovered evidence that organ procurement organisations in the country have in some cases begun harvesting organs from patients who were not yet dead.
The findings were made public by the Health Resources and Services Administration following an investigation into the Network for Hope, the federally designated organ procurement body responsible for Kentucky, parts of West Virginia and south-western Ohio.
HRSA reviewed 351 cases where donation had been authorised but not completed. In over a hundred of those cases, investigators found serious irregularities. These included the presence of brain stem reflexes and other signs of neurological activity in patients whose organs were removed.
