Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Larry Black Jr with his sister Molly Watts |
A week later, Black, was on the surgical table being prepared for organ harvesting when his physician demanded that Black be removed from the surgical table, because he was not declared brain dead and his heart was still beating.
Anthony reported that:
Black’s sister Molly Watts said the family had doubts after agreeing to donate Black’s organs but felt unheard until the 34-year-old doctor, in his first year as a neurosurgeon, intervened.
Today, Black, now 28, is a musician and the father of three children. He still needs regular physical therapy for lingering health issues from the gun injury. And Black said he is haunted by what he remembers from those days while he was lying in a medically induced coma.
“I heard my mama yelling,” he recalled. “Everybody was there yelling my name, crying, playing my favorite songs, sending prayers up.”
He said he had tried to show everyone in his hospital room that he heard them. He recalled knocking on the side of the bed, blinking his eyes, trying to show that he was fighting for his life.
Organ donation is a difficult topic to write about since it can save lives. I have been writing about organ donation issues for many years. It is a scandal that death is sometimes caused by organ removal rather than organs being retrieved from a dead donor.
On July 23, 2025 I wrote about The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) media release from July 21, 2025 concerning the organ transplant system in the United States. Health and Human Services examined 351 organ donation approvals and determined that in 103 cases their were concerns that the dead donor rule may have been violated.
In 2023, an effort to legitimize harvesting organs from living people was prevented when the Uniform Law Commission stopped the effort to revise the UDDA. The revision to the UDDA was designed to give legal cover when organs are taken from people who have not yet died but have an irreversible condition.
On July 31, 2025 Wesley Smith published an article about an article written by a group of physicians that was published in the New York Times calling for the re-definition of death. If they redefine death, then organs can be taken from live donors who have been declared dead. Smith wrote:
On July 31, 2025 Wesley Smith published an article about an article written by a group of physicians that was published in the New York Times calling for the re-definition of death. If they redefine death, then organs can be taken from live donors who have been declared dead. Smith wrote:
First, the authors lament the difficulty of obtaining healthy organs from people whose hearts stop irreversibly after the removal of life support. They also bemoan the shortage of “brain-dead” donors. Then, after discussing a controversial approach that restarts circulation after cardiac arrest (but not to the brain) — which I have posted about before — they get down to the nitty-gritty of redefining death. From “Donor Organs Are Too Rare. We Need a New Definition of Death“.
There are many abuses of the organ donation system. First, there needs to be more research into the abuses related to the organ donation / retrieval system. Second, abuses of the system need to be strongly dealt with. This is a life and death issue. Third, there needs to be a clean-up of the organ donation industry, not only in the US but world-wide.
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