Was This Boy ALLOWED to Die to Harvest His Organs?

Gregory Jacobs, 18 year old, was injured in a snowboarding accident in 2007. He suffered brain injuries in the accident. This week, his parents filed a lawsuit claiming doctors "intentionally killed" him in order to harvest his organs.

The suit was filed in the US District Court of Western Pennsylvania. They seek $5 million in damages.

The couple says their son was not even "formally declared brain dead" when the transplant procedure began. The lawsuit states, "But for the intentional trauma or asphyxiation of Gregory Jacobs, he would have lived, or, at the very least, his life would have been prolonged." "significant chance of substantial recovery." The Bellevue, Ohio family claims that if their son was properly treated, he would have had a "significant chance of substantial recovery."

Being charged are doctors at Hamot Medical Center in Erie and a representative of the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) in Pittsburgh. In prepared statements, both Hamot Medical Center and the organ center expressed condolences to the Jacobs family.

Hamot maintained that the treatment administered was "timely, appropriate and well-documented." "Proper consent was received in order for his organs to be donated and the protocols that were followed were consistent with all established donation procedures...Any claims otherwise are completely baseless. While we have yet to receive formal notification of a lawsuit having been filed, we will vigorously defend against any accusations of wrongdoing."

For more information you can visit - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7017711 .