US Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary slams MAiD organ donation in Canada as 'horror'

CALGARY — The US Deputy Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Jim O'Neil, has bashed Canada's medical assistance in dying (MAiD) program as being a "strange new horror" when it comes to its organ donations.Reported by the Washington Examiner, O'Neil stated MAiD has crossed ethical boundaries by using it as a tool to increase organ donation — citing Canada has become a world leader in organ transplant policy from deceased patients.“We thought we’d seen all the possible horrors, you know, in America, and then Canada had this strange new horror that was really just shocking,” said O’Neill.According to a 2024 report from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Quebec experienced a "substantial increase in deceased donation," during the first five years of the MAiD program. .Between 2018 and 2022, the proportion of deceased donors who were MAiD patients in the province increased from 4.9% to 14%.Across multiple countries, including Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, 286 people in all four countries donated their organs in 2022 after some form of medically assisted suicide — nearly half (136) were from Canada, according to the American Journal of Transplantation.Canadian Institute of Health Information reported in 2024, of 894 deceased donors that year, 7% were deceased MAiD patients.Keep in mind, of all MAiD patients in 2024, 60% had cancer which precludes their ability to donate their organs..O'Neil said he has not spoken to his Canadian counterpart on the matter but added MAiD deceased donation rates are "very unfortunate."In the US, 14 out of the 50 states have introduced a version of medically assisted suicide, with Illinois being the most recent to do so in December. In October, a 38-year-old Ontario man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), a nervous system disease, who was approved for MAiD, agreed to donate his organs prior to his death.A report from doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Ottawa Hospital in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation stated, “Death was declared within seven minutes of initiating the MAiD protocol.”.His heart was donated to a 59-year-old American man with heart failure.“The TransMedics Organ Care System (OCS) was used to reanimate, evaluate and transport the donor heart to Pittsburgh, USA, where the transplant took place," the report stated.

US Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary slams MAiD organ donation in Canada as 'horror'

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