This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Donna Martinez, associate editor of Carolina Journal.

Many folks will remember Tom Selleck as the Hawaiian shirt-wearing private investigator in “Magnum PI.” Not me. Selleck’s face was burned into my memory after his small role in the 1978 thriller “Coma.” The image of Selleck staring into space from the operating table as his organs are auctioned off tops my list of chilling movie scenes.

When I read an ABC News story about New York City – “Ethicists Debate Ambulance for Organs” – “Coma” popped into my head. I’m not alleging a sinister plot behind NYC’s new organ recovery program, but I do believe officials are implementing an unwise policy that places undue pressure on grieving families of accident victims.

New York City’s plan is called the Rapid Organ Recovery Ambulance (RORA). Program organizers at Bellevue Hospital Center hope to have the ambulance rolling in Lower Manhattan later this year. I support its goal: to increase the number of organs available for transplant. It’s the method I oppose: a death’s-door ambulance that shadows first responders at accident scenes. The New York Times reports project leader Dr. Lewis Goldfrank has been talking with members of the community “to assuage public jitters.”

Understandable, given that RORA adds new meaning to the phrase “ambulance chaser.” Some details are unclear, but here are preliminary plans for how it will work.
Let’s say you’re in a car accident. Paramedics are dispatched. However, behind the scenes, something new will occur. A second ambulance – the Rapid Organ Recovery Ambulance — will be dispatched to a nearby location, monitoring paramedics’ efforts to save you.

If they fail, the RORA will move in after observing a two-to-five minute “hands-off period” and transport you to Bellevue. On the way, the RORA team will begin procedures, such as chest compressions and administration of drugs, to keep your body viable for organ donation. Once you’re in the ER and doctors verify you’re a suitable candidate — voila! Your preserved body sits in the surgical equivalent of an on-deck circle while a representative presents your relatives with organ donation authorization forms.

Creepy.

What’s about to happen in New York City stands a good chance of hurting the broader campaign to persuade people to donate. It is already infusing the debate with questions of ethics. Then there’s suspicion. Any normal human being will wonder if every effort was made to save their loved one before the organ wagon swooped in. A grieving family member is likely to question whether the “hands-off” period was long enough, or if the push to retrieve organs somehow hastened death.

The feds evidently disagree. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Bellevue the $1.5 million RORA grant. You and I are helping pay for the accident-scene stakeouts.

I make this criticism as a supporter of organ donation. In 1999, my family donated my 26-year-old nephew’s organs and tissues following a fatal asthma attack. I’ve given speeches advocating donation, and I will be a donor if the manner of my death allows it.

I hope Bellevue takes New York City’s “jitters” seriously before moving ahead with a blunt instrument of persuasion fueled by government power in one of its strongest forms: grant money. This nation must have a discussion about how to address the shortage of organs. Some free marketers advocate an organ marketplace, in which willing sellers contract with willing buyers. I continue to oppose the buying and selling of body parts, which I believe cheapens life.

Let’s instead consider the policy of presumed consent, which presumes a person is an organ donor unless he or she opts out. Everyone wins with this approach. The organs of those who want to donate, or those who don’t care either way, will be transplanted. But those who don’t want to participate won’t be required to do so. They retain their right to say no, away from the pressure of a transplant team.

In the meantime, I’ll be watching to see what happens if and when the RORA hits the streets of Lower Manhattan. I’ll also be looking over my shoulder to see if there’s a second ambulance lurking near the next traffic accident I see.