{"id":7743,"date":"2017-03-25T20:55:41","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T03:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=7743"},"modified":"2018-03-05T18:42:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T02:42:38","slug":"canadian-surgeons-harvesting-organs-from-euthanised-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=7743","title":{"rendered":"Canadian surgeons harvesting organs from euthanised patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

BioEdge<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Cook<\/p>\n

March 29, 2017 (BioEdge<\/a>) — Taking advantage of the country’s new law, Canadian transplant surgeons have harvested organs from dozens of euthanasia patients. According to the National Post, 26 people in Ontario who died by lethal injection have donated tissue or organs. This involved mostly corneas, skin, heart valves, bones and tendons.<\/p>\n

The National Post’s report only covered Ontario. Bioethicists, Transplant Quebec and an\u00a0ethics committee of the Quebec government<\/a>\u00a0in Quebec argued last year that euthanasia could be a good source of organs, so it is quite possible that similar procedures have been carried out in that province as well.<\/p>\n

“If we accept people can make decisions to end life, and we accept the idea of cardiac death being sufficient for organ donation, this should be acceptable,” Dr\u00a0James Downar<\/a>, of Dying with Dignity Canada, told the Post, to allay fears that patients could be pressured into donating organs.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, this is a topic which did not emerge in discussions about euthanasia before the Supreme Court legalised it in 2015. An influential report by a\u00a0Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel<\/a>\u00a0did not even mention it, for instance, nor the\u00a0Supreme Court’s decision in Carter vs Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coordinating organ transplants with euthanised donors has been going on for several years in Belgium and the Netherlands. About 40 cases in the two countries have been reported. Last year Dutch physicians at the Maastricht University Medical Center and the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam published a\u00a0multidisciplinary manual<\/a>\u00a0for the complex procedure.<\/p>\n

A recent article in the\u00a0Impact Ethics<\/a>\u00a0blog by Professor Jennifer A. Chandler,<\/a>\u00a0of the University of Ottawa, pointed out that combining organ donation with euthanasia could lead to some tricky issues in ethics, law and conscientious objection:<\/p>\n

\u2022 What if a patient seeks euthanasia to direct his donation to a family member? The potential for abuse is obvious.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0What if a next-of-kin is asked to approve organ donation after a person has been euthanised but has left no instructions?<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0What if the transplant surgeon has a conscientious objection to the procedure? Should he be forced to do it?<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0What if a recipient objects to receiving an organ from a euthanised patient?<\/p>\n

\n

\"CanadianThis article is published by Michael Cook and BioEdge under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it or translate it free of charge with attribution for non-commercial purposes following these guidelines<\/a>. If you teach at a university we ask that your department make a donation to BioEdge. Commercial media must contact BioEdge<\/a> for permission and fees.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BioEdge Michael Cook March 29, 2017 (BioEdge) — Taking advantage of the country’s new law, Canadian transplant surgeons have harvested organs from dozens of euthanasia patients. According to the National Post, 26 people in Ontario who died by lethal injection have donated tissue or organs. This involved mostly corneas, skin, heart valves, bones and tendons. … Continue reading “Canadian surgeons harvesting organs from euthanised patients”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,32,162,9,3163],"tags":[1560,1412,2906],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-7743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assisted-suicide","category-canada","category-euthanasia","category-news","category-organ-procurement","tag-dying-with-dignity-canada","tag-james-downar","tag-jennifer-chandler"],"yoast_head":"\r\nCanadian surgeons harvesting organs from euthanised patients - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=7743\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canadian surgeons harvesting organs from euthanised patients - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BioEdge Michael Cook March 29, 2017 (BioEdge) — Taking advantage of the country’s new law, Canadian transplant surgeons have harvested organs from dozens of euthanasia patients. 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