The House Ways and Means Committee has investigated several organ procurement organizations over what the lawmakers say is behavior considered unacceptable. The US House Ways and Means Committee said Wednesday that it is investigating the organ procurement organization for the New Jersey region for what it called “extreme abuse of public trust” and possible illegal activity, including trying to procure organs from people who didn’t volunteer to be donors and, in at least one case, trying to continue with the organ recovery process in a patient who had “reanimated.” The allegations were discussed in a letter the committee sent to the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network, one of 55 organ procurement organizations that are federally designated nonprofits tasked with the multibillion-dollar business of managing the recovery of organs for transplantation in the United States. The committee, which has investigated several organ procurement organizations over what the lawmakers say is behavior considered unacceptable, says it has been asking the New Jersey network for records and information at least since July. Investigators spoke with nearly a dozen whistleblowers, the letter says. One of the incidents it highlights involves an unnamed patient at the Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, New Jersey. The patient was pronounced dead and the network started the process to recover their organs, the letter says, but soon after the recovery process began, the person “reanimated.” The procurement team called the network’s chief executive officer to find out what to do. Witnesses told the committee that the CEO instructed the NJTO staff on site to “proceed with recovery,” according to the letter. “However, hospital staff intervened, and recovery did not move forward.” Neither the hospital nor the procurement organization responded to CNN’s requests for comment. The committee described the case as “shocking” and “alarming” and said several whistleblowers told investigators that documents with regard to details about the case were deleted or manipulated. The committee’s letter also alleges that the New Jersey Sharing Network misused documents to tell patients’ families it had authority to remove organs, even if the patient was not currently listed as an organ donor on their driver’s license or, in some cases, had withdrawn their permission to donate; may have procured and thrown out hundreds of organs just to meet federal metrics; and gave organs to people out of sequence on the transplant list. “This is unacceptable,” the letter says. “The organs procured by every [organ procurement organization] across the country belong to the individuals on the waitlist who are ranked and matched using medical criteria. They do not belong to the OPOs, and it is not NJTO’s role to pick winners and losers on the transplant waiting list.” The letter also says the organization has made misleading statements to Congress throughout the investigation. “These allegations raise questions about whether NJTO should keep its tax-exempt status and highlights the need for potential legislative reforms,” the letter says. The House Ways and Means Committee has asked the New Jersey organization to send additional documents including any complaints it has received, documents from the head of the organization and staff communications, as well as any more unredacted documents related to the patient in the Camden case. The letter is the latest development in the committee’s focus on the nation’s organ procurement groups. In July, the committee sent a letter to the Indiana Donor Network with regard to its use of private jets for non-mission charter flights. It also demanded documents from the Miami-area Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, and after its investigation, the US Department of Health and Human Services moved to decertify the organization – essentially shutting the operation down – in September. The investigation found unsafe practices, staff shortages and paperwork errors, according to HHS. Agency Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at the time that the move was meant as a “clear warning” to other donor organizations. In September, the committee sent a letter to the Network for Hope, a Kentucky-based organ procurement organization, that demanded documents related to practices it considered unsafe. In one case four years ago in Richmond, Kentucky, a man says he woke up on the operating table while a recovery team was shaving his chest to take his organs. Witnesses say the hospital staffers were pressured by people within the organization to continue with the procedure, but a local surgeon refused to continue the operation when she saw that the man wasn’t dead. The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office has also been investigating the case. Stay informed and connected — subscribe to The Philadelphia Tribune NOW! Click Here Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don’t Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don’t knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the ‘Report’ link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
https://www.phillytrib.com/news/health/new-jersey-organ-procurement-organization-under-congressional-investigation-after-alarming-whistleblower-claims/article_857704a9-2558-4c5d-a282-52e1569f3360.html
Category: ethics
The Problem with Auschwitz-Birkenau’s New Digital Camp Replica
At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum announced the launch of a new digital replica of the concentration camp designed specifically for filmmakers. Titled *Picture from Auschwitz*, this virtual film location aims to facilitate a range of productions set on the grounds, where current preservation regulations restrict filming to documentaries only.
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**Background: Auschwitz and Its Historical Significance**
Established in the town of Oświęcim in German-occupied Poland, Auschwitz consisted of three main camps where over 1.1 million European Jews were murdered: the Auschwitz I concentration camp, the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) killing centre, and the Auschwitz III (Monowitz) labour camp. The museum hopes that this new technology will support telling the true story of the camp without compromising the memorial’s historical integrity.
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**Digital Preservation and Ethical Oversight**
The museum plans to digitally preserve the Holocaust site, which receives over two million visitors annually, and will submit scripts for all new feature film projects involving the replica to a team of historians for review. A glimpse of the digitized location reveals a virtual model of Auschwitz I, providing a clear snapshot of the camp’s barracks, grounds, and infamous wrought iron gates.
The two-minute trailer for *Picture from Auschwitz* claims the certified 1:1 digital representation is the biggest and most detailed documentation of the camp to date. Eventually, the project will include the interior as well as the exterior environments of both Auschwitz I and II.
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**Holocaust Memory in the Digital Age**
The project’s use of digital technology to safeguard Holocaust memories reflects a global shift toward digitizing the Holocaust as the survivor generation passes on and heritage sites deteriorate, a process accelerated by extreme weathering linked to the climate crisis. As the Holocaust recedes from living memory, cultural institutions increasingly rely on digital tools to remember the past.
While some have used virtual reality (VR) to digitally reconstruct and maintain key Holocaust sites, others have turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to generate interactive survivor holograms. These technologies have become popular educational tools for use in classrooms, museums, and memorial sites worldwide.
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**Ethical Implications of Digital Memory Projects**
Digital memory projects make Holocaust sites globally accessible and help protect their legacy. However, these same technologies risk distorting the historical record. In the UK, public debates on the ethics of digital Holocaust technologies — including AI and VR — have involved high-profile politicians and scholars alike.
International bodies such as UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress have reported concerns that generative AI, in particular, may fuel Holocaust distortion. *Picture from Auschwitz* aims to address these issues by enabling ethical storytelling.
Wojciech Soczewica, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, described the project on the Memorial’s website as a “powerful example of how culture and technology can unite to protect our shared human history from distortion and denial.” He added that the replica will preserve the relevance of Auschwitz’s history, ensuring it “won’t fade with time.”
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**Challenges and Limitations**
While the virtual site encourages historically rooted depictions of the camp, it cannot guarantee ethical engagement with the Holocaust. In fact, the project raises further questions regarding how the digitization of such a profound event aligns with ethical modes of remembrance and representation.
A wholly authentic depiction of any Holocaust site or experience is something that digital and filmic interventions can only approximate. Even if perfect authenticity were possible, ethical portrayals of the Holocaust depend not only on accurate representation of sites but also on the kinds of stories being told and formal stylistic choices.
Film researcher Archie Wolfman highlights that filmmakers’ decisions about camera movements, angles, lighting, and editing carry ethical weight as much as the subject matter itself.
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**Broader Reflections on Holocaust Representation**
The implication that Auschwitz must be digitized to protect its legacy suggests that existing materials — including the camp’s extant remains, personal belongings of victims, and survivor testimonies — are no longer sufficient. It also problematically implies that Holocaust history must continually adapt to digital culture to remain relevant.
Moreover, the digitization of Auschwitz emphasizes certain Holocaust sites and stories over others, such as the rural landscapes across Central and Eastern Europe where no human structures or visible traces remain. Even within the Auschwitz complex, *Picture from Auschwitz* offers only a selective representation, excluding Auschwitz III, its network of sub-camps, and the surrounding environment.
The planned script review process further shows the Memorial’s role in overseeing cultural narratives of the event. This implies that only artistic representations favoring realism hold value, sidelining stylized Holocaust films like *Jojo Rabbit* (2019), *The Cremator* (1969), and *Distant Journey* (1949), the latter of which was actually shot on location in Terezín, Czech Republic.
These examples demonstrate that Holocaust films need not have a direct physical connection to real sites to meaningfully represent the event.
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**Conclusion: Navigating Digital Ethics and Holocaust Memory**
Ultimately, the *Picture from Auschwitz* project highlights a tension between growing public demand for cultural Holocaust productions and the difficulty in cultivating ethical representations of the event.
Navigating the ethical dimensions of Holocaust narratives has always presented challenges, but these have become more complex with the evolution of digital innovations that are difficult to regulate or police.
*Picture from Auschwitz* reveals the extent to which digital technology is transforming how knowledge about the Holocaust is understood and disseminated — not always for the better. As this new chapter unfolds, ongoing critical reflection is essential to ensure respectful remembrance and accurate representation of one of history’s darkest periods.
https://flaglerlive.com/the-problem-with-auschwitz-birkenaus-new-digital-camp-replica/
NCPC partners ICPC to sensitise staff on ethical conduct
The Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC) is taking proactive measures to enhance ethical standards within its organization by partnering with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The Executive Secretary of NCPC, Bishop Stephen Adegbite, announced this collaboration during a Sensitization and Public Awareness Workshop for staff on Anti-Corruption and Ethical Conduct held on September 17, 2025, at the NCPC Conference Hall in Abuja.
Bishop Adegbite expressed the Commission’s commitment to promoting integrity, justice, honesty, and accountability among its employees. This initiative aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s vision of building a nation rooted in righteousness and the fear of God. He stated that NCPC will do everything possible to ensure the realization of this national aspiration.
He further emphasized that corruption undermines the values of good governance and erodes public trust. Bishop Adegbite urged staff to embrace the ideals encapsulated in NCPC’s corporate slogan, *Service and Satisfaction*. He remarked that the sensitization program conducted by ICPC will equip staff with the knowledge and moral responsibility to resist corrupt practices while upholding the highest standards of professionalism.
Earlier in the event, Dr. Musa Adamu, Chairman of ICPC, was represented by Mr. Olusegun Adigun, Director of the Systems Study and Review Department. Mr. Adigun expressed gratitude to Bishop Adegbite for his support in establishing the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) within the Commission.
Dr. Adamu noted that corruption is a significant barrier to national development, undermining trust in institutions and reducing the effectiveness of governance. He highlighted that the ACTU acts as a vanguard against corruption and that its success relies heavily on collaboration and collective efforts.
He urged the Management of NCPC to continue its unwavering support for the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit, ensuring that the unit is equipped with the necessary resources and institutional backing to drive impactful reforms.
The workshop also featured presentations by ICPC resource persons on topics including *Entrenching Ethics and Integrity in the Workplace* and *Public Sector Corruption: Nature and Consequences*.
This partnership marks a significant step toward fostering a culture of transparency and ethical conduct within the NCPC, reinforcing its dedication to serving the public with honesty and accountability.
https://tribuneonlineng.com/ncpc-partners-icpc-to-sensitise-staff-on-ethical-conduct/