A growing number of patients requesting medical assistance in dying have also asked to donate their organs for transplantation, says an international review that found that Canada is performing the highest number of organ transplants from patients who requested assisted dying among the four countries studied that offer the practice.
The report is the first review of the growing use of this new practice worldwide. The review was conducted in 2021 and the results formally published in December 2022.
Data collected for the article show that in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain combined, 286 assisted dying recipients provided vital organs for transplantation to 837 patients in the years up to and including 2021.
Physicians in Canada, where medical assistance in dying (MAID) was decriminalized in 2016, performed nearly half of the world's post-MAID organ transplants during that period (136), according to the publication.
Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information confirms that this new source of organ transplants accounted for 6% of all deceased donor transplants in Canada in 2021.