Assisted Dying Donation, A New Conversation

Assisted dying became available in Aotearoa New Zealand in November 2021. About 800 people have chosen assisted dying, mostly due to a terminal cancer diagnosis, and mostly at home, with an IV bag to administer medications.

ODNZ has been working with the Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora, the transplant teams, GPs, and assisted dying practitioners to develop a national strategy for Assisted Dying Donation (ADD). First it was determined through legal consultation that ADD can and does exist in compliance with New Zealand law. After that, we iteratively developed an ethics framework for ADD to provide appropriate safeguards and maintain public trust.

 We sought feedback from experts in Palliative Care, and medical ethics, as well as presenting the principles to the CEAG at Te Toka Tumai/Auckland. We have now submitted it to the MOH Assisted Dying Group for further feedback and will eventually submit it to the  National Ethics Advisory Committee (NEAC). The process for ADD has been specifically developed to be as similar to our current donation practices as possible.

So far we have had about 20 referrals from motivated patients and GPs all over the country. We had had a couple of eye tissue donations, and recently our first organ donation after an assisted death. It was a huge team effort, with support from overseas.

We are now the seventh country in the world to have undertaken an ADD.  Our amazing donor coordinators and clinicians went above and beyond to support the wishes of an incredibly generous patient and their whānau, who successfully donated her kidneys and lungs.