In this interview, Dr. James Downar and Dr. Jennifer Hancock take listeners through some of the ethical considerations of having a patient who requests medical assistance in dying (MAiD) or withdrawal of life-sustaining measures (WLSM) and who is also requesting to have his or her organs donated. Dr. James Downar is head of the division of palliative care at the University of Ottawa and is a critical care physician at The Ottawa Hospital. He is one of the authors of the guidance for policy.Dr. Jennifer Hancock is an intensive care physician in Halifax and is involved with Nova Scotia's organ donation organization, Legacy of Life. She was also the physician handling organ donation for a patient who underwent MAiD. A guidance for policy article was published in the Canadian Medical Association. Dr. James Downar is one of the authors. This guidance document was developed on behalf of Canadian Blood Services in collaboration with the Canadian Critical Care Society, the Canadian Society of Transplantation, and the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses.The guidance for policy is published in CMAJ. Full article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181648-----------------------------------Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite aggregator. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.
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