Muskegon County Chief Judge Kenneth Hoopes supported the wishes of a family member seeking to stop the organ donation of a Michigan woman. The Judge concurred that Jaszmine Phillips explicitly expressed her desire not to be a donor.
Consequently, Hoopes granted the family’s petition, preventing the organ donation from proceeding. “I am so happy. You can’t tell me what a community can’t do,” said Kameka Johnson, Phillip’s mother. She shared her opinion in an interview with Nexstar’s WOOD following the verdict.
“God turned a miracle today. She belongs to us, not to the state. I am joyful, and I thank everybody for sharing, watching, liking, reposting, showing up in numbers. I am so grateful,” Johnson added. The family’s attorney, Mike Oakes, said that Phillips’ recent statement expressed that her unwillingness to donate organs overrode the donor designation on her driver’s license.
“Jaszmine Phillips had expressed to numerous individuals her desire not to donate her organs. The respondent would have this court rely on the fact that over a decade ago, she selected to be an organ donor on her driver’s license,” Oakes said.
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However, Jill Erickson, the attorney representing Gift of Life Michigan, countered. He suggested that it appeared the family attempted to override Phillips’s expressed wishes. “This hearing today is about honoring the decision that Miss Phillips made during her lifetime,” Erickson said.
He continued, “The only person who is capable of revoking the decision for the donor to become a donor is actually the donor. The gift cannot be revoked by a third party.” Oakes brought forth three witnesses to support his argument.
According to Hoopes, the decisive testimony came from what he referred to as a “disinterested witness.” The Judge claimed someone indirectly related to the family convinced him. This individual was Phillips’ aunt’s girlfriend, who accompanied Phillips and the aunt to the hospital on February 14, 2024.
The girlfriend recounted, “The entire ride, all I could hear her saying, to her auntie, she wasn’t saying it to no one else but her aunt, ‘I don’t want them to kill me. I want to keep my organs. I don’t want them to have my orans.'”
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She clarified that she didn’t know much about Phillips, as she just met the aunt for less than a year. Hence, the girlfriend had only met Phillips a few times. On February 16, Trinity Health Muskegon declared Phillps brain dead two days after seeking medical attention for a severe headache.
When Gift of Life Michigan, the state’s organ donation program, arrived to retrieve her organs, her family declined. Despite acknowledging her donor status on her driver’s license, they insisted that Phillips said not to be a donor. They added that she intended to change her donor status when her license expired in 2026.
Following the verdict, Erickson stated that Gift of Life Michigan planned to appeal the ruling. However, in an email to WOOD, a spokesperson for the organization clarified that they would not pursue an appeal. Trinity Health Muskegon’s attorney said the hospital would abide by whatever orders the court issues.
Furthermore, the attorney clarified that the hospital’s doctors are not part of the organ donation process. The attorney also said that Gift of Life Michigan transports donors to a separate facility for the donation process.
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