Donor Autonomy and Self-Sacrifice in Living Organ Donation: An Ethical Legal and Psychological Aspects of Transplantation (ELPAT) View

Nizam Mamode*, Kristof Van Assche, Lisa Burnapp, Aisling Courtney, David van Dellen, Mireille Houthoff, Hannah Maple, Greg Moorlock, Frank J.M.F. Dor, Annette Lennerling

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Clinical teams understandably wish to minimise risks to living kidney donors undergoing surgery, but are often faced with uncertainty about the extent of risk, or donors who wish to proceed despite those risks. Here we explore how these difficult decisions may be approached and consider the conflicts between autonomy and paternalism, the place of self-sacrifice and consideration of risks and benefits. Donor autonomy should be considered as in the context of the depth and strength of feeling, understanding risk and competing influences. Discussion of risks could be improved by using absolute risk, supra-regional MDMs and including the risks to the clinical team as well as the donor. The psychological effects on the donor of poor outcomes for the untransplanted recipient should also be taken into account. There is a lack of detailed data on the risks to the donor who has significant co-morbidities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number10131
JournalTransplant International
Volume35
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge the support of the European Society of Transplantation for ELPAT. The ELPAT working group on Living Organ Donation greatly acknowledge Maria Valentin for her contribution to the manuscript during the time she has been involved in the writing process.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Mamode, Van Assche, Burnapp, Courtney, van Dellen, Houthoff, Maple, Moorlock, Dor and Lennerling.

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