Article Text
Abstract
In this article, we want to reply to the recent article by Buturovic, to be able to correct some statements and allegations about this combined procedure. Organ donation after euthanasia is an extremely difficult procedure from an ethical point of view. On the one hand, we see a suffering patient who wants to die but who also wants to make an altruistic effort to donate his organs. On the other hand, we visualise a patient in need of an organ but who is wary of the fact that someone else needs to die in order to potentially receive a transplant organ. Healthcare professionals seem to walk a tightrope when balancing between the interests of the patients at these two extremes: while facilitating the dying patient’s last wish on the one hand and abiding by all regulations regarding donation and transplantation on the other. Yet, these physicians, nurses and transplant coordinators do their utmost best to keep a strict line between euthanasia and organ donation, to avoid any external pressure on the patient, and to respect his autonomy. They really make an utmost attempt to make the process bearable for the donating patient. However, undeniably the patient who is about to undergo organ donation after euthanasia is nevertheless confronted with dozens of feelings and thoughts. However, this does not imply that procedural safeguards are failing to disentangle organ donation from euthanasia.
- care of the dying patient
- euthanasia
- transplantation
- donation/procurement of organs/tissues
- ethics
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Linked Articles
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Legal and ethical aspects of organ donation after euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands
- Organ donation after medical assistance in dying or cessation of life-sustaining treatment requested by conscious patients: the Canadian context
- The wish to die and hastening death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A scoping review
- Organ donation after euthanasia in children: Belgian and Dutch perspectives
- Procedural safeguards cannot disentangle MAiD from organ donation decisions
- Impact of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) on family caregivers
- Burden of organ donation after euthanasia in patients with psychiatric disorder
- Embracing slippery slope on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia could have significant unintended consequences
- Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study
- Legal physician-assisted dying in Oregon and the Netherlands: evidence concerning the impact on patients in “vulnerable” groups