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Charges Brought against Transplant Doctor Accused of "Hastening" Patient's Death

Patient said to be "the ideal victim" - didn't have much money, was disabled, his mother was also disabled and lived three hours away

By John Jalsevac

SAN LUIS OBISPO, August 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Charges are being filed against a California transplant doctor for allegedly hastening the death of a patient in order to harvest his kidneys.

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, a transplant surgeon with Kaiser Permanente's defunct kidney transplant program, has been investigated by police since March for allegedly ordering a nurse to administer excessive doses of pain medication to patient Ruben Navarro, who died several hours after the medication was administered.

In early July the mother of Navarro filed a complaint in the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, accusing Roozrokh of murdering her son in order to harvest his organs.

According to reports Dr. Roozrokh initially took Navarro off life support, but when he did not die after 30 minutes he told nurses, "Let's just give him some more candy," meaning more pain killers.

Rosa Navarro's complaint alleges that Roozrokh told her, "There is nothing that can be done for your son. He is going to die." She claims that she was also falsely informed that according to hospital policy, the plug on her son's respirator had to be pulled after 5 days. Mrs. Navarro says that she agreed to donate her son's organ if he died, but that she never consented to removing him from life-support.

"The facts indicate that Dr. Roozrokh tried to accelerate his death to facilitate the harvesting of his organs," said Stephen Brown, the San Luis Obispo County deputy district attorney, according to the TimesOnline. "The central issue of the case was the mistreatment of a severely disabled adult."

The doctor is being charged with dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance and prescribing controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose. Roozrockh, however, is denying the charges. His lawyer stated that "[Roozrokh] is an extremely dedicated and accomplished organ transplant surgeon…Dr. Roozrokh did not commit any crime."

"Nothing that Dr. Roozrokh did or said at the hospital that night adversely affected the quality of Mr. Navarro's life or contributed to Mr. Navarro's eventual death."

If convicted on all counts, Roozrokh could face up to eight years in prison.

Kevin D. Chaffi, the California attorney representing Rosa Navarro, explained to LifeSiteNews.com in early July that Navarro was "the ideal victim", since he didn't have much money, he was disabled, and his mother was also disabled and lived three hours away.

"It was an opportunity for this type of situation to occur," he said. "I think it's a sign that we need more protection for people with disabilities or any potential organ donor and stiffer punishment."

This case is the most recent to highlight the moral quandary presented by organ donation, in which moral lines often become blurred, and where the temptation for doctors is to increasingly relax ethical standards to allow for more and easier harvesting of organs. This is especially the case since the extraordinary medical procedure of organ transplantations is increasingly being perceived by the public as an expected form of treatment. Many news reports talk about the critical "shortage" of available organs for transplant.

Recently Britain's chief medical officer pushed for automatic presumption of organ donor status of patients, with an opt-out provision for those patients unwilling to be organ donors, in order to combat such an organ "shortage."   

Some current methods for determining the "death" of a patient are also increasingly coming under fire for being recklessly liberal in their definition of what constitutes "death". In the last several years LifeSiteNews.com has reported extensively on so-called "donation after cardiac death" (DCD) in which death is pronounced after the heart has stopped beating for five minutes. According to Dr. Moira McQueen, the President of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Centre, five minutes after cessation of cardiac activity, is "frankly…not nearly enough."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Organ Transplant Doctor Investigated in Non-Heart Beating Donation Case
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07030903.html

Mother Alleges Doctor Murdered Her Handicapped Son to Harvest His Organs
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07070603.html

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