Meg Gatto ABC26 News
New Orleans—
A controversial political ad is stirring up emotions and scaring people away from organ donation.

It's a jarring piece of video, but one that's sure to grab your attention. In it, the actor says, "We need a heart, a spleen, a liver for tonight's sale."

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Dr. Dwight McKenna is behind the ad, he's running for coroner against incumbent Frank Minyard. He claims he's been told by undertakers that the coroner's office is selling people's organs. Dr. Minyard vehemently denies this saying, "He's just trying to find some way to make people vote for him and not to vote for me, and I can tell you, it aint gonna work."

About 20 years ago, an employee at the coroner's office was selling pieces of bone fragment from a corpse to a bone bank without family member's permission. Frank Minyard and the coroner's office were originally names in a civil lawsuit brought by that family, but, according to Minyard, they were later dropped from the suit and the individual employee held solely responsible. McKenna says, "We stand by the ad, there's nothing to retract, there's no apologies to be given, Dr. Minyard needs to give the apology, and stop denying what he did."

But the graphic images have caused some damageÂ…the Louisiana Organ Procurement Association say people have been calling in in droves to say they're afraid of organ donation. Cheryl Hills, who educates people about the gift of life, thinks McKenna is trying to tap into the underlying fear that most Americans already have about organ donation. "If you're going to talk about organ donation, state the facts and not put it out there as this is a horror show" Hills comments.