Thursday, February 25, 2021

Organ donation following euthanasia (at home procedure)

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A letter published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) clarifies that people who die by euthanasia will often refuse to participate in organ donation because they prefer to die at home. In his letter, Dr Johan Sonneveld explains that a procedure permits euthanasia at home followed by organ donation.

To be clear, Sonneveld explains that the person is sedated at home and then transported to the hospital to have the organs removed. The letter states:
The patient is only sedated at home, which marks the start of euthanasia in legal terms but is medically only intended to remove consciousness while vital functions are maintained and secured. Coma induction and the start of the agonal phase subsequently take place in the intensive care unit after farewells at home and transportation. With the 5 minutes “no touch,” the total warm ischemia time until death decided was less than 7 minutes in this procedure.
By linking organ donation to euthanasia, then euthanasia becomes a "societal good." The advantage to linking euthanasia to organ donation is that the organs are vital, being removed from a person who has not died, and in many cases, is not near to dying a natural death.

But let's not be innocent about this. The question is why kill the person with lethal drugs before removing the vital organs? The plan is to kill the person, so why not kill the person by removing the vital organs?

6 comments:

Mary said...

This is absolutely horrendous ! What kind of a human being thinks this is a good idea ? We will soon be like China, which kidnaps people to take out their organs. A society which condones this is treating humans as commodities rather than people with a spirit and a soul. May God have mercy on our twisted world 🙏

sophie jensen said...

I am sure that the final question in this article was a rhetorical one, but I will still present my answer/opinion: because killing someone by removing their vital organs is murder, but killing them with lethal drugs -- and with the sanction of the government -- is not.

Sterling Speaks said...

I agree with Mary. People will be "strongly encouraged" to accept euthanasia so that their organs can be harvested. This will happen to those who are physically healthy. Thus the push to euthanize people with mental health issues. Cancer patients cannot donate organs. Lord Have Mercy!

Unknown said...

Exactly, Mary. Thank you for putting it so well.

Ana said...

When we humans try to play God we always do a bad job of it. There is a reason that we were never meant to be in charge of life and death,

SB said...

Perhaps I am not understanding what is written above or this "medical procedure"... but the person is NOT dead when the organs are removed and is simply "sedated". Then once the organs are removed, they are killed or left to die. This is horrifying to me.