Do you think it is right to sideline the respect for a brain-dead person in order to prolong the lives of others?

I think it is not right to sideline the respect for a brain-dead person in order to prolong the lives of others. Like what Ho said, the medical facts are but one perspective. The concerns of loved ones must not be taken lightly even if the end result is to give life to someone else. No one would like to see his or her loved ones being treated disrespectfully. Usually to the family members and friends, brain-dead is not equivalent to death since patients’ hearts are still beating and their bodies are still warm. Subconsciously, they tend to cling onto the mere hope that the one lying motionlessly on the bed would one day wake up. In their eyes, their loved ones are still living. We thus have to have regard for the brain-dead. We need to take into consideration the feelings of the people who are related to the patients. The power of human ties must not be ignored. In Japan, most people regard brain-dead people as living souls. It is predictable that strong sentiment of unhappiness would be aroused if doctors were to remove organs without family’s approval. Thus, it passed a law that makes it illegitimate to harvest organs from a braid-dead person without family members consent.

Also, instead of sidelining the regard for a brain-dead person, we should respect he or she even more since he or she helps to prolong the lives of others. If the law makes it legal to remove organs from brain-dead people for transplant, doctors should immediately removed the organs wanted and preserve them, allowing funerals to proceed, instead of administering drugs that only sustain the live of the organs but do harm to the patients. It would be cruel to allow the family members to witness the bodies of their loved ones not being taken cared of, but instead being treated as a place of preserving organs. It is also cruel to treat the brain-dead merely as a source of organs. We can prolong the lives of others and at the same times, respect the brain-dead person. I believe that the immediate removal of organs serves as a form of regard for the brain-dead.