Headline March 27, 2018/ ''' *LIVING VERSUS *DEAD* '''

''' *LIVING VERSUS *DEAD* '''

AND SO WHEN THE clocks whirs past the mid-night tock, today, this Monday the 26th, 2018-  Mrs Hanif-

Engineer telecom and technologist, Saima Hanif's revered mother, has the honor to take over as the  Honorary President for the week on The World Students Society.

The Students of Pakistan and the Students of the whole world, give Mrs. Hanif a standing ovation.

IN RUSSIA : ASKING permission before taking organs is considered just so 'inhumane'.............

So, as the donor debate rages, and will continue to rage in the future on ethics, sensibilities and the  morality of it all-

*The World Students Society will set up its own module and database* for the students to consider...... 

''THEY NEVER ASKED for permission to take out my sons organs, but I did not put this into writing because I did not know they could do this,'' said Mrs Valyushchenko;

Russia said it was legally unnecessary for doctors to advise Valyushchenko of their plans.

In a document sent to the European court, Russia said that it it should make families feel better, not worse, if they learn their relatives' organs were taken.

''The Russian government would like to refer to a quiet common phenomenon when the family of a deceased person feels emotionally comforted by the fact that the deceased person's organs were recovered for transplantation and used to save other people's lives,'' the document reads.

This reasoning was little consolation to Valyushchenko, who bought the case to the Omsk regional  court in 2013, against the doctors for improperly taking her son's organs. 

''They told me at the trial, why are you so upset?  You should be happy the kidneys went to two guys,'' Valyushchenko said.

The regional court dismissed her case.

In her claim to the European court, Valyushchenko asked for 10,000 Euros or $12,204  in compensation.

The Strasbourg court considering the organ cases in an international judicial body established in 1959 by the Council of Europe, which includes Russia.

If Russia is found to have violated the European human rights convention, the court could order Russia to overhaul the organ donation law.

In a 2015 case involving a Latvian woman who sued the government after body tissue was removed from her deceased husband  without  consent, the court ruled in her favor, and Latvia amended its law.

Valyushchenko, lawyer Anton Burkov argues that  Russian doctors violated her rights by subjecting her to ''inhuman or degrading treatment.

''Most people never know that their relatives organs have been taken, so they have no reason to protest,'' said Burkov, who works for human rights organization Sutyajnik, based in Yekaterinburg.

Burkov is also representing Elena Seblina at the European court. Sablina's daughter Alina was killed in a Moscow car crash.

In 2014 and like Valyushchenko, Sablina only realized that her daughter's organs had been taken without her consent on knowledge when reviewing  a criminal file weeks later.

''On the ethical side, clearly Russia is unusual,'' said David Snaw of the Institute of  Bioethics at the  University of Basel in Switzerland.

''I can understand the logic of needing organs for transplantation but you don't have a leg to stand on  if you don't give the family or a donor a chance to object,''  he said.

But some ethicists said that Russia's approach is a useful and appropriate way to address a constant shortage of organs.

''Russians are right to put the interests of living people before the interests of dead people for the simple reason that the dead have no interests,'' said John Harris, a professor emeritus in bioethics at the University of Manchester.

He said that while it might be prudent for Russian doctors to tell families that they were planning to tell relatives that-

They were planning to take their relatives organs, failing to do so more was 'more a question of manners than morality.''

Despite having instructed doctors not to remove her son's organs, even Valyushchenko acknowledged she might have changed her mind had doctors taken the time to discuss the complexities of the issue with her.

''I talked to the deputy chief doctor,'' she said. ''I asked her, why did you do this? Maybe I would have agreed to this. But you alone decided this and did not tell me,'' she said.

''I am his mother, after all.''   

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! - The World Students Society and Twitter - !E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Donations & Donors '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless