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Articles on Organ donation

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Liver transplant surgery. Gabriel Borda / Flickr

Organ donation: whether we opt in or out, research finds it’s the will of our family that matters

Contrary to what we may think, changing people’s default status from non-donor to donor cannot significantly increase organ donation rates — as long as the family is involved in the decision.
A limited supply of donor organs, paired with a massive demand for transplants, has fuelled the global organ trafficking industry, which exploits poor, underprivileged and persecuted members of society as a source of organs to be purchased by wealthy transplant tourists. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Killing prisoners for transplants: Forced organ harvesting in China

China’s industrial-scale organ trafficking practice has been executing prisoners of conscience and using their organs for transplantation for decades. This is known as forced organ harvesting.
Eighty-five per cent of Ontarians support organ donation, but only one-third have opted in under the current system. (Shutterstock)

An opt-out organ donor system could address Canada’s shortage of organs for transplant

Thousands of Canadians are on waiting lists for life-saving organ transplants. An opt-out organ donor system, like the one Nova Scotia is implementing, could reduce avoidable deaths and suffering.
Accepting a donor kidney with a small risk of carrying HIV or hepatitis B or C might be worth thinking about. from www.shutterstock.com

Organs ‘too risky’ to donate may be safer than we think. We crunched the numbers and here’s what we found

Organs from gay men or injecting drug users, often rejected for transplants, could safely be used, so long as donors test negative for infections such as HIV, and hepatitis B and C.
It is currently legal for Canadians to travel abroad and obtain organs from illicit sources. If it gains final approval from the Senate, Bill S-240 will change this. (Shutterstock)

Canada must end complicity in China’s brutal organ trafficking regime

When a Canadian travels to China to receive an organ transplant, a member of a persecuted minority may be killed to provide the organ.
A Nova Scotia woman displays the tattoo that marks her two liver transplants at the provincial legislature in Halifax in April 2019. The province’s Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act will allow Nova Scotians to donate their organs and tissue unless they opt out. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

A little nudge goes a long way in increasing organ donor registrations

Most Canadians support organ donation after death, but fewer than 25 per cent have registered to donate their organs. What can be done to encourage more registrations?
It’s not always clear where human organs come from in research papers. Piron Guillaume/unsplash

Whose hearts, livers and lungs are transplanted in China? Origins must be clear in human organ research

International standards ban publication of research that involves any biological material from executed prisoners, that lacks human research ethics committee approval and that lacks consent of donors.

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