sábado, 25 de marzo de 2017

BioEdge: Canadian surgeons harvesting organs from euthanised patients | BioEdge | Sunday, March 26, 2017

BioEdge: Canadian surgeons harvesting organs from euthanised patients

| BioEdge |  Sunday, March 26, 2017



Canadian surgeons harvesting organs from euthanised patients
     


Taking advantage of the country’s new law, Canadian transplant surgeons have harvested organs from dozens of euthanasia patients. According to the National Post, 26 people in Ontario who died by lethal injection have donated tissue or organs. This involved mostly corneas, skin, heart valves, bones and tendons.

The National Post’s report only covered Ontario. Bioethicists, Transplant Quebec and an ethics committee of the Quebec government in Quebec argued last year that euthanasia could be a good source of organs, so it is quite possible that similar procedures have been carried out in that province as well.

“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,” Dr James Downar, of Dying with Dignity Canada, told the Post, to allay fears that patients could be pressured into donating organs.

Oddly enough, this is a topic which did not emerge in discussions about euthanasia before the Supreme Court legalised it in 2015. An influential report by a Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel did not even mention it, for instance, nor the Supreme Court’s decision in Carter vs Canada.

Coordinating organ transplants with euthanised donors has been going on for several years in Belgium and the Netherlands. About 40 cases in the two countries have been reported. Last year Dutch physicians at the Maastricht University Medical Center and the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam published a multidisciplinary manual for the complex procedure.

A recent article in the Impact Ethics blog by Professor Jennifer A. Chandler, of the University of Ottawa, pointed out that combining organ donation with euthanasia could lead to some tricky issues in ethics, law and conscientious objection:

• What if a patient seeks euthanasia to direct his donation to a family member? The potential for abuse is obvious.
• What if a next-of-kin is asked to approve organ donation after a person has been euthanised but has left no instructions?
• What if the transplant surgeon has a conscientious objection to the procedure? Should he be forced to do it?
• What if a recipient objects to receiving an organ from a euthanised patient? 


Bioedge



A number of the eminences of Silicon Valley are besotted with immortality. Google, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are a just a few names amongst the many who want to do away with death, or at least add a few decades, or even a few hundred years, to their lifespans.
Even if this is achievable, is this desirable?
British sci-fi author and futurist Paul Graham Raven has written a blistering demolition of the transhumanist project. (Hat-tip to Wired.) It is basically a philosophy for selfish (and mostly white) rich guys, he suggests.
it turns out that technologies which extend, augment or otherwise improve human life are already here! You may have heard of some of them: clean water; urban sanitation; smokeless cooking facilities; free access to healthcare; a guaranteed minimum income; a good, free education. There are more – and you’d be surprised how many of them have been around in one form or another for decades, even centuries! But they’re unevenly distributed at the moment, so the first agenda item for all transhumanists should be looking for ways to get these technologies to everyone on the planet as soon as possible
But that is unlikely to happen. In their single-minded focus on maximising their own welfare, dedicated transhumanists are deaf to the needs of the society: “You look after yourself, I’ll look after me; what could be fairer than that?” Raven writes caustically. Come to think of it, this critique of personal autonomy could be applied to a number of other areas in bioethics. 


Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge

NEWS THIS WEEK
 
by Michael Cook | Mar 25, 2017
Dozens of patients in Ontario have already donated organs and tissue
 
by Michael Cook | Mar 25, 2017
New types of structures grown from stem cells raise perplexing problems
 
by Michael Cook | Mar 25, 2017
Government cites health concerns
 
by Michael Cook | Mar 25, 2017
Another transgender tale
 
by Michael Cook | Mar 25, 2017
A critic of the bad old eugenics embraces the good new eugenics.
 
by Xavier Symons | Mar 25, 2017
Australian doctors are calling for a campaign to fight mental illness in the medical profession.
 
by Xavier Symons | Mar 25, 2017
Ethicists are debating the moral issues surrounding chimera research.
 
by Xavier Symons | Mar 25, 2017
A controversial bill restricting ‘wrongful birth’ claims has passed the Texas Senate.
 
by Xavier Symons | Mar 25, 2017
Ever wondered what Catholicism says about vaccination?
BioEdge
Suite 12A, Level 2 | 5 George St | North Strathfield NSW 2137 | Australia
Phone: +61 2 8005 8605
Mobile: 0422-691-615
New Media Foundation | Level 2, 5 George St | North Strathfield NSW 2137 | AUSTRALIA | +61 2 8005 8605 

Bioedge

No hay comentarios: