I bequeath my heart…
Comments on the draft Federal Law "On the Basics of Public Health protection in the Russian Federation"This week, the State Duma adopted in the third reading the law on the basics of public health protection.
The document has caused great controversy in society, which is unlikely to stop after its approval. Life will judge who is right. However, a curious detail remained unnoticed during medical conversations: now it will be possible to notarize your consent or disagreement to the removal of organs for transplantation to someone else.
Recall that a few years ago a major scandal broke out related to organ transplantation. Law enforcement officers accused the doctors of waiting for the patient's death in order to sell his organs. The demand for other people's hearts is great, there are giant queues behind them. Whoever doesn't wait will die. But if someone dies, then someone waited. Such is the deadly wordplay. The situation is not easy, and from time to time there are rumors in society that some "killer doctors" are taking patients to the grave for the sake of organs.
However, the medical community rejected such accusations. The human body, like the soul, is too thin a matter, you can't achieve anything with a rough knife in it. Criminal organ trafficking, according to this logic, is just a plot for detectives and militants, life is not so simple. But after the high-profile "doctors' case", which, by the way, were justified, Russian practical transplantology was thrown back. Due to the shortage of donor organs, only about 30 percent of patients from the "waiting list" in our country survive until transplantation. Perhaps the new legal procedures will save the institute of organ transplantation from speculation and nervous rumors. If a person does not want to share organs, medicine will be powerless.
– If there is a notarized disagreement of the applicant on the removal of organs and tissues after death, the medical organization must be informed of its existence and make an appropriate note in the patient's medical documentation, – representatives of the Federal Notary Chamber explain.
They say you can't take wealth to the next world, you'll have to leave everything here on sinful earth. But you can't take the heart (in the biological sense) to heaven, and here, in the mortal world, other people's healthy organs are worth their weight in gold. It is very human to think about your neighbors even at the threshold of death.
Power of attorney for your favorite kidneyThe law provides for three forms by which an adult capable person will be able to give the "go-ahead" for the use of their organs by outsiders.
The first way is to declare it verbally in the presence of witnesses. The second is to inform your will in writing and certify the paper with the head of the medical organization. Finally, the third option is a notarized expression of will.
In the same way, a person can officially record his "no, don't, don't even offer." If someone has a fear that he will be stabbed on the operating table, and the organs will be put on sale, then, perhaps, a notarized "I don't want" will save his nerves.
In the absence of an expression of will, when there is neither "yes" nor "no", the issue will be decided by the close relatives of the deceased person. The law gives a list of them: first, the spouse. If there is no other half, the answer will be given by one of the children or parents. Also, adopted children, adoptive parents, siblings, grandchildren, grandfathers, grandmothers have the right to answer this question.
Information about the presence of a fixed will of a person is entered in the medical documentation. Any doctor who has picked up a medical history will see: this patient is categorically against the removal of his organs. There's nothing you can do, a man is the master not only of his word, but also of his kidneys. And he is ready to live on earth and after death – in parts.
Treatment – lightLet no one be horrified by the free style of presentation: the problem of organ transplantation is too heavy and serious to talk about it dryly and gloomily.
As life and death go hand in hand, so the lightness and horror of being are always together.
Someone else's organs save lives. But what does it feel like to wait for someone's death for years, to hope that it will arrive in time? According to doctors, only about 30 percent of patients from the "waiting list" for a transplant survive to a life-saving operation. The rest leave without waiting.
There are many myths, fears and urban legends hovering around organ transplantation. For example, back in the 90s of the last century, in one of the provincial cities, "knowledgeable people" told me that it was dangerous for young men to walk around Moscow - they would be killed and sold for organs. Like, a whole business has been established, people are literally allowed to eat meat…
The narrators were so convincing that I wanted to quickly become old, scary and useless to anyone, so that I could safely walk around Moscow. However, now I suspect that my "sources" exaggerated somewhat.
And a few years ago, a loud scandal broke out in Moscow: law enforcement officers accused a group of metropolitan doctors of illegal organ hunting. Allegedly, doctors, instead of saving people, waited for their death in order to take their hearts.
In the presentation of law enforcement officers, the scheme was terribly simple. Let's say a person who crashed in a car accident is brought to the hospital. He is on the verge of life and death, he can be saved, but doctors do not even try to fight for his life. Instead, they inform colleagues involved in organ transplants and calmly wait for death. One of the central channels even showed an investigation film about this.
To an outsider, the arguments of the law enforcement officers looked convincing. However, the medical community assured that not everything is so simple, they say, people in uniform have screwed up too much. And the people lying on the operating table were doomed.
The court eventually acquitted the doctors. But the high-profile process, as doctors believe, has thrown Russian transplantology far back. Instead of saved lives, ruined ones were added.
Seal against DeathNext year, as representatives of the Ministry of Health and Social Development reported at the time, it is planned to adopt a new law on transplantation.
However, its adoption was directly linked to the law on health protection – the basis for the development of legislation in the field of healthcare.
The law has already been approved by the State Duma and sent to the Federation Council. Now we are waiting for the next steps. And lawyers hope that involving notaries in such delicate cases will help solve some problems, including removing unnecessary fears. Although there are a lot of unclear things in the very procedure of issuing a "power of attorney" to their bodies.
In this regard, it would be interesting to look at the face of the first notary to whom a citizen will come with such a request. What should be the form of the document, what wording should be used? There is something for lawyers to think about here.
In addition, the law provides that the body, organs and tissues of a deceased person can be used for medical, scientific and educational purposes if there is a notarized "will" from the former (now) owner of the body.
Again, the quotation marks in the word "testament" are not for nothing. It is unlikely that a body can be called property – in the legal sense. Otherwise, we would have to wait six months after death to inherit, look for heirs of the first or second line, and so on. No, the body is the body. Therefore, the form of the official paper in this case, apparently, also needs to be worked on.
If the body is not claimed by anyone after the death of a person, it can also be given to the service of science. The procedure and conditions for the transfer of the unclaimed body, organs and tissues of a deceased person for use in medical, scientific and educational purposes, according to the law, will be established by the Government of the country.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Vladislav Kulikov (Rossiyskaya Gazeta).
08.11.2011