At 11:04 AM 7/13/96 -0400, Cathy Smith wrote:
>       <snip>
>As far as I know, all medical facilities require written permission before
>obtaining organs or tissues.
        <snip>
.  However, if the mother has made the decision to have the baby's
>life terminated, she surrenders any moral right to give such permission.

                How is it that we happened to leap into a discussion of your
perception of moral rights?   Does this perception of yours now preclude you
from permitting Govenor Casey to have access to the healthy living heart
that saved his life?   This is the same Govenor Casey who had nothing at all
to do with killing the donor.   And it is the same Govenor Casey who
received a heart from someone who was killed for some unknown reason other
than to create organ donors.

>
>I came across an analogy that might make this point a little clearer.  It
>would be appropriate for a wife who had loved and cared for her husband to
>assign the use of his body parts after he dies, but if the wife had shot and
>killed her husband, by that act she forfeited her moral right to make such a
>decision.  Similarly, because the mother of an aborted baby had a part in
>taking the life of that child, she has no moral right to authorize
>transplantation of that baby's tissues.

                Again we have suddenly plunged into your perception of moral
rights.    If the woman had durable power of attorney, like it or not, she
would retain the right to ensure that her husband's organ donation wishes
were upheld.

>
>Please, please. . .do not misconstrue my intentions.  I am not passing
>judgment or imposing my beliefs on anyone.

                This is the second time in two postings you have told us you
are not passing judgement or imposing your beliefs on anyone.   "Methinks
thou doth protest too much."   Let me emphasize that I am, in a previously
hidden left-handed way, imposing my beliefs on the readers in this audience.

 I am merely sharing them because
>I believe in the sacredness of all life and am concerned with the disregard
>for life at all stages.
>
                Do you really believe in the sacredness of all life, or is
it limited to human life?   What are your beliefs about the use of porcine
fetal tissue to save human lives?   Have you ever visited India?   Do you
know that if the numbers of the faithful worldwide were all added up, those
who wouldn't even swat a mosquito far outnumber those who merely wish to
impose their abortion beliefs on others?



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