My cousin was in a serious car accident and was put on life support. After four days, the decision was made to shut off the machines, and my cousin's blood was drawn for tissue typing to see if she could donate a kidney to me... I'm a dialysis patient. I knew that my cousin and I had the same blood type. I got my blood drawn, and the next day my aunt was told that we weren't a match so the transplant wouldn't be done. My aunt was not asked if she wanted to donate my cousin's organs to anyone else.
My cousin was a known drug user. It's possible that her drug use contributed to the car accident. Would the doctor have decided not to do the transplant because of the presence of drugs, and just told my aunt that we weren't a match in order to spare her the further grief of finding out her daughter was back on drugs at the time of her accident? I thought this might be what happened since my aunt wasn't asked for permission to use my cousin's organs for anyone else.
Here is my question: If you were in this situation, would you tell the parents the truth? Or would you feel that the parents already had enough to deal with?
