(BioEdge) – There is a startling statistic tucked away in Ontario’s September quarter euthanasia statistics. A total of 519 people were euthanised from July 1 to September 30.
Nothing too surprising.
But of the total euthanised, it appears, from government’s sketchy summary, 30 donated organs. In other words, somehow the euthanising doctor and the transplant surgeons coordinated their efforts so that these people could give their organs to others. The time period is unclear.
Presumably the donation was not the cause of death, as this is illegal under Canada’s euthanasia legislation. But there is pressure from doctors to change this.
A year ago two Ontario physicians and Robert Truog, a bioethicist from Harvard Medical School, published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine listing all the advantages of “organ donor euthanasia”. CONTINUE