Organ harvesting from euthanasia patients in Canada draws concern

The practice of organ harvesting from euthanasia patients has drawn concern from bioethicists who believe it could make it harder for the patients to change their minds about going through with assisted suicide.

A total of 26 people who died by lethal injection in Ontario have already donated tissue or organs since Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law came into effect last June, according to the National Post. Most of them donated tissue, which mostly involved eyes, skin, heart valves, bones, and tendons.

Some bioethicists and transplant experts have argued that those who qualify for assisted dying should be offered the chance to donate their organs. They said that the gesture could bring them a "profound sense of psychological comfort," provided that the request for assisted death and the decision to donate are kept separate.

"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," said Dr. James Downar, who co-chairs the Canadian Blood Services committee that develops organ donation guidelines for the "conscious competent patient."

"The concern that comes up is, could the decision for one drive the decision for the other?" he added.

Other ethicists have raised their concern that it could put pressure on terminally ill patients to consider assisted suicide as an alternative sense of purpose.

Jennifer Chandler, professor of policy and ethics at the University of Ottawa, said that linking assisted suicide and organ harvesting could put pressure on patients to go through with MAID and make it hard for them to change their minds about taking their lives.

Chandler pointed to a scenario in which all the medical tests have been conducted and the recipients have been found, but the patient had a change of heart. "One wonders if perhaps that might create pressure to continue with the MAID," she said.

She stated that the patients should be clearly informed that they are allowed to change their mind anytime and that they should not be pressured to "stick with MAID just because they feel an obligation, having set the process in motion."

A total of 338 people have died by medical assistance in Ontario since it was legalized in June. There were over 4,500 people who were waiting for organs in Canada in 2014, and 278 of them died while waiting.