The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) passed legislation on Thursday prohibiting organ harvesting from military and civilian casualties of Russia’s invasion. The measure, Law No. 9558 “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Improving the Organization of Medical Care Using Transplantation”, received broad support with 254 of 313 lawmakers voting in favor.
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20250111022357/https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/01/ukraine-parliament-bans-organ-donation-from-war-casualties/
If I’m dead and my lungs are still viable, cut them the fuck out.
Here’s the problem when you say that in a war. You’re alive, you’re an enemy combatant and/or civilian, you are now dead, victim of a tragic mishap or some sort, and your lungs are still viable, cut the fuck out and sold to fund the war. If you were lucky, there was still anesthesia left.
It’s a terrible proposition to even consider accepting transplants from warzones. It’s begging for warcrimes. Even if the state says harvesting from live people is illegal, it’s a war. A lot falls under the cracks.
You can just regulate it and make the data public. War crimes? Everyone sees it. Only people who are allowed to harvest them can do it and that also solves all the other stuff. I think thats a pretty good solution. Also, nobodys funding a war with organs, they are used to save lives.
Russia is currently returning Ukranian POWs with organs harvested, so they are funding the war with organs. Nobody is denying that they’re not saving lives (what else are you going to do with organs?), the problem is, can the process be verified accurately enough to prevent criminal harvesting of organs ?
During a war, things are hectic. Hectic enough that if there are rogue members harvesting organs, claiming they’re doing on official orders, but much later are found out to be acting on their own accounts, they are not detected and acted on promptly. Even if everyone sees it, who will question it ? Even during peace times in highly regulated countries, doctors still go on for a long time doing things they’re not supposed to before being caught. By then several innocents have suffered. Where is a country with severe lack of manpower for war going to find more manpower to run an organ tracing and verification committee?
Additionally, Russians are currently running a disinformation campaign against Ukranians saying that certain Ukranian officials are involved in an organ harvesting scheme, which allegedly Ukraine wants to stamp out doubts through legislation.
Personally I’m against this. I don’t think there are enough mechanisms to prevent abuse and the potential for harm is immense. I wouldn’t even trust a country with less corruption issues on this, and Ukraine has considerable corruption issues. Organ donating is fine, but war is not the time for it.
Tell us you know nothing about anything without telling us you know nothing about anything…
Tell me you don’t understand logistics without telling me you don’t understand logistics…
Clearly there is potential for abuse if you’re harvesting organs on the front line. Really though, that’s more of an indication of your own moral character than societies in general though if you’re assuming that people will just execute prisoners for their organs en mass … But if you’re only pulling them from the back line then it’s no longer an issue with proper accounting. If civilian doctors are the ones making the decisions then it’s not an issue. Are you one of those cranks that thinks having an organ donor card means they’ll just put you down when you roll into the hospital?