Mary Vought – Opinion contributor
USA Today – Aug. 9, 2025
It sounds like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie or a tale by Edgar Allan Poe. But sadly, grisly stories of patient abuse related to organ transplants have proved all too real.
A federal investigation, an oversight hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a story in The New York Times have recently examined potential and actual instances of patient deaths being accelerated for the purpose of procuring − some would call it harvesting − their organs.
The stories speak to the problems inherent in giving control over organ donation to entrenched regional monopolies.
Federal officials at the Health Resources and Services Administration recently examined the conduct of Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, one of more than 50 regional organ procurement organizations. According to The Wall Street Journal, a whistleblower reported to Congress last fall that the Kentucky OPO attempted to recover organs from a patient showing visible signs of life. In that case, the Health Resources agency found documentation showing that hospital staff thought treatment of the patient was “inhumane and unethical,” and even called it “euthanasia.”