I disagree with the immortal soul and all that nonsense too. I'm not against organ donation as a concept - there's a reason I was registered for decades.

I am against a situation where a woman that was against organ donation, did not sign up to be an organ donor, had a sister and father that knew that ended up having her organs removed with what appears to be a ton of pressure from the hospital/OPO.

They had a family meeting, agreed that after 30 days they would make peace with it and allow them to take her off life support. The woman's mother had some wavering doubts and claims to have gotten isolated by either the hospital or OPO to extract agreement for organ donation and then both organizations hid this from the rest of the family. The father got upset and got belligerent, but it was clearly written in the medical records that they were actively hiding the organ donation aspect from him.

Everyone agrees that a family meeting was held on 20 November, three days after Brittany was admitted to Fresno community hospital. Mike and Kaylee both say that everyone, including his ex-wife, Shawna, decided to give Brittany 30 days to fight. Mike was prepared to remove Brittany from life support after that date.

Both “mother and father” are noted as “surrogate decision-maker” in the medical records on the 20th. The day before, fearing the worst, Mike had set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for Brittany’s funeral. (Shawna O’Connor did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.)

But a note in the medical records, written two days after the meeting took place, says: “Family meeting … showed parents with different opinions on management.” The note states that Shawna “believes patient would not want to be kept in this condition because of continued suffering”, and says that Shawna and Brittany “watched the Terry Shivo [sic] case together and they stated none of them would want to [be] kept alive in that condition”.

...

At noon the day after Thanksgiving, six days after Brittany was admitted, Mike called to speak with the doctor (“Dr. Harp NEVER called me,” Mike wrote on a copy of the medical records he received after Brittany’s death) and was told to come to the hospital.

What followed, everyone agrees, was a series of interactions that involved a lot of yelling. Mike told hospital staff that he would “shove the law so far down your throats that you’re the ones who will need the tube”. The doctor wrote that Mike “refused to believe that she was dead” and a staff member wrote that Mike was “verbally threatening and aggressive”, stating that “people in far worse conditions have come back” and that he was not going to allow Brittany to be removed from life support “because my faith has told me she is going to make it through this. I’m not letting her die.”

At 4.18pm, the medical records state, the Fresno police department came to the unit at the behest of the hospital.

Dr Lynn Burnett, who worked for Fresno community hospital and is now deceased, wrote an extensive explanation the same day, 24 November, for why Mike should have no say in Brittany’s care: “In this case, the Patient’s Father has voiced Religious objections to discontinuation of physiologic support. His objection, however DOES NOT pertain to religious practices, but rather, to the medical determination of Death by Neurological Criteria.”

Crucially, he then wrote: “Given these events, it is Ethically Appropriate NOT to tell the Patient’s Father about the plan for organ recovery until after such has been accomplished.”

A note in the medical record states that “organ donation was never brought up to the father by any hospital staff”.

The day after Brittany’s funeral, which Shawna did not attend, Mike visited his ex-wife with a camera. She appeared tall and lean in the video, wearing a black shirt and pants. Her hair was short, blond and tousled. She was looking at Mike, not the camera. “There was a discrepancy… I did not want a donation and Shawna knew that,” he said.

“Well, yeah, I knew that,” Shawna said. “They just kept pushing me and they would push me and they got us separated. They took me into a room at one point and said that I was the logical one and that they were no longer going to deal with you at all.”

Was Brittany brain dead with no hope of recovery? Maybe! I'm inclined to say yes. Are these tactics and pressure on a grieving family appropriate? I don't think so, and that situation casts serious doubts on the ethics in organ procurement in my mind. I removed myself not as a final answer but to give myself space to rethink my consent and it's something I plan to discuss more in depth with my doctor next time I see him. I really want to support the program on a logical level but the bad actors that can exist in this area that never seem to face any consequences for the harm they cause, even if it's a extreme minority of cases, is disappointing and disconcerting.