A new proposal for organ donation sparks concern
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By Rob Stein

Updated Thursday, July 9, 2026 • 1:08 PM EDT

Heard on All Things Considered
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Should surgeons be allowed to perform euthanasia by removing patients' hearts and other organs while they're still alive?

The idea, dubbed "Death by Organ Donation," would enable euthanasia patients to donate organs for transplantation in a way that would make their organs more likely to be usable. It would also kill them.

"It would be an ethical thing to do because this is something the patients have chosen for themselves," says Dr. Robert Truog , a physician and bioethicist at Harvard Medical School who co-authored a paper outlining Death by Organ Donation in the New England Journal of Medicine . "They have very generously thought: 'How might my death help other people?' It's a very altruistic, generous thing to do.'"

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