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01-09-2019 | Assisted Suicide | From the Inside

Death by organ donation: euthanizing patients for their organs gains frightening traction

Author: E. Wesley Ely

Published in: Intensive Care Medicine | Issue 9/2019

Excerpt

How should society respond to the increasingly long list of people waiting for organs [2] on a transplant list? You’ve no doubt heard of “black market” [3] organs in foreign countries, but are there other options that should be off the table? If you were on a transplant list, would it matter to you if the organ was obtained from a living person who died because of the donation procedure itself? What if she had volunteered? …

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Kindy K, Bernstein L, Keating D (2018) Lives lost, organs wasted. The Washington Post. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/05/02/organ-donation-physician-assisted-suicide-death-disability-column/3628448002/. Accessed 9 July 2019

Taylor JS (2006) Black markets, transplant kidneys and interpersonal coercion. J Med Ethics 32(12):698–701. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2005.015859 CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

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Gilbo N, Jochmans I, Jacobs-Tulleneers-Thevissen D, Wolthuis A, Sainz-Barriga M, Pirenne J, Monbaliu D (2019) Survival of patients with liver transplants donated after euthanasia, circulatory death, or brain death at a single center in Belgium. JAMA 322(1):78–80. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.6553 CrossRefPubMed

Kirkey S (2017) Doctors harvesting organs from Canadian patients who underwent medically assisted death. National Post. https://nationalpost.com/health/doctors-harvesting-organs-from-canadian-patients-who-underwent-medically-assisted-death?__lsa=294d-ba48/. Accessed 9 July 2019

Bollen JAM, Hoopen RT, van der Hoeven M, Shaw D, Brierley J, Ysebaert D, van Heurn LWE, van Mook WNKA (2018) Organ donation after euthanasia in children: Belgian and Dutch perspectives. Arch Dis Child Educ Pract Ed. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-315560 CrossRef

Department of Health and Human Services (2016) Ethical considerations of imminent death donation. https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/governance/public-comment/ethical-considerations-of-imminent-death-donation/. Accessed 9 July 2019

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Lewis R (2018) ‘Voluntary euthanasia’: are we ready to harvest organs while donors are still alive? Genetic Literacy Project. https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/09/18/voluntary-euthanasia-are-we-ready-to-harvest-organs-from-patients-who-are-still-alive/. Accessed 9 July 2019

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Title: Death by organ donation: euthanizing patients for their organs gains frightening traction
Author: E. Wesley Ely
Publication date: 01-09-2019
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Keyword: Assisted Suicide
Published in: Intensive Care Medicine / Issue 9/2019
Print ISSN: 0342-4642
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1238
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-019-05702-1

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Death by organ donation: euthanizing patients for their organs gains frightening traction

Excerpt

At a glance: The STEP trials

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