{"id":1819,"date":"2015-02-19T09:02:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vivredignite.org\/?p=1819"},"modified":"2015-02-19T09:02:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:02:43","slug":"organ-donation-and-euthanasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/organ-donation-and-euthanasia\/","title":{"rendered":"Organ donation and  euthanasia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/fr.canoe.ca\/sante\/nouvelles\/archives\/2015\/02\/20150215-205458.html\">Bernard  Drainville wants Quebec to adopt \"presumed  consent\" for organ donation<\/a>.  At first glance, this seems a reasonable policy to increase the number  of organs available for people in need. But this policy is fraught  with risks. I am not against organ donation, far from it! I am myself an organ  donor and two members of my  immediate family have benefited from organ donation. This is an issue that I know well.\n<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>However, when we think of organ donation with &quot;presumed  consent&quot; in an environment where  euthanasia is legal, the risks increase dramatically. In Belgium,  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.applied-cardiopulmonary-pathophysiology.com\/fileadmin\/downloads\/acp-2011-1_20110329\/05_vanraemdonck.pdf\">23.5% of lung transplants come from donors that were euthanized<\/a>.  Moreover, in that same country, <a href=\"http:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/2014\/04\/involuntary-euthanasia-for-intensive-care-in-belgium\/\">the Belgian Society of Intensive Medicine  argues that involuntary euthanasia  is not only an acceptable  form of treatment, but a desirable  one<\/a>!   This situation arose a dozen years after  the legalization of euthanasia in Belgium. It is worrying for the future of organ  donation in Quebec.\n<\/p>\n<p>In  addition, Mr. Drainville suggests the creation of a National  Assembly Committee holding hearings in several cities, such as the Committee on  Dying with Dignity. He states  that &quot;this is a sensitive topic  that raises important ethical issues.&quot; This is true. But <a href=\"http:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/2014\/04\/democratic-process\/\">the report of the Committee on Dying with Dignity does not reflect the evidence heard during the 29 days of  public hearings<\/a>.   Experts and citizens who participated in the Committee were ignored : 60%  of the briefs were against  euthanasia. Only 2% of the briefs were in favour of assisted suicide.  Despite this, the report recommended  the legalization of euthanasia in Quebec. There is no  reason to expect that a potential  committee on the issue of organ  donation would behave differently.\n<\/p>\n<p>We  must find a solution to the chronic problems of lack of  organs and long waiting lists for people who need organs. But we should not create an environment  where people are persuaded to choose euthanasia because their organs could help someone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bernard  Drainville wants Quebec to adopt &#8220;presumed  consent&#8221; for organ donation.  At first glance, this seems a reasonable policy to increase the number  of organs available &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1819"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2741,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions\/2741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}