Doctors transplant heart from Canadian assisted suicide donor

Canadian doctors have performed a successful heart transplant using an organ from an assisted suicide donor.

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Canadian doctors have performed a successful heart transplant using an organ from an assisted suicide donor.

The 38-year-old donor, who had ALS, recently underwent medically assisted suicide and had consented to organ donation before the procedure.

According to a case report published in June by physicians from The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the donor’s heart was removed within minutes of death, reanimated, and transplanted into a 59-year-old man in Pittsburgh.

The recipient was discharged 20 days later in good condition.

This is believed to be the first recorded heart transplant after assisted suicide, with previous donations involving lungs, kidneys and livers.

Since assisted suicide became legal in 2016, organ donation following euthanasia has steadily increased. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), 7 per cent of all deceased organ donors in 2024 died through assisted suicide. That year, 5 per cent of all transplants used organs from such donors.

A review cited in both LifeSiteNews and the National Post noted that at least 235 assisted suicide patients have consented to donate their organs since 2016.

Of 286 international organ donation after death cases documented up to 2021, 136 occurred in Canada, placing the country at the forefront of the practice.

Donation logistics are more predictable under assisted suicide, where death can be scheduled in hospitals near operating rooms. In the Ontario case, death was declared seven minutes after initiating the assisted suicide protocol. The heart was then preserved and transported for transplant within 5 1/2 hours.

The National Post report noted that protocols require a five-minute “no-touch” period following death before organs are retrieved, in accordance with the “dead donor rule.” Medical guidance also requires that decisions around assisted suicide and organ donation remain separate and that consent

The federal government plans to expand eligibility for assisted suicide to include individuals whose sole condition is mental illness beginning March 2027.

Conservative MP Tamara Jensen tabled a private members bill in June, Bill C-218, that seeks to amend the criminal code to ban mental health conditions from the list of assisted suicide eligibility criteria.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s most recent election platform did not mention assisted suicide or its planned expansion.

CIHI reports that in 2024, 13 organs were exported from Canada to the United States, while 63 were imported.

If no Canadian match is found, organs may be offered abroad through existing international agreements.

Organ donation after assisted suicide is expected to grow as medically assisted suicides increase.

Health Canada’s most recent data recorded more than 13,000 assisted suicide deaths in 2023, becoming the fifth leading cause of death in Canada.