Three years after assisted death became legal in Canada, the medical community is debating a provocative question: should organs be removed from consenting euthanasia patients while they’re still alive? Under so-called “euthanasia by organ donation,” the act of organ donation itself — not a lethal injection or a doctor-prescribed, life-ending dose of barbiturates — would be the mode of death. Organ donation after euthanasia is already occurring, legally, in Canada. “In such cases it may be ethically preferable to procure the patient’s organs in the same way that organs are procured from brain-dead patients (with the use of general anaesthesia to ensure the patient’s comfort. Doctors should fulfill a patient’s wishes to the extent they can, said Shapiro, author of a paper on euthanasia by organ donation published in the Dalhousie Law Journal.

Source: National Post May 22, 2019 19:50 UTC