Transpl Int. 2015 Nov 19. doi: 10.1111/tri.12720. [Epub ahead of print]

Ethical, legal and societal issues and recommendations for controlled and uncontrolled DCD.

Haase B1, Bos M2, Boffa C3, Lewis P4, Rudge C5, Valero R6, Wind T7, Wright L8.

Author information

• 1Dutch Transplant Foundation, the Netherlands.
• 2Health Council of the Netherlands.
• 3Oxford Transplant Center, Nuffield Department of Surgery, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
• 4King's College London, United Kingdom.
• 5Former Clinical Director for transplantation DoH, United Kingdom.
• 6Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Spain.
• 7Maastricht University Medical Centre, the Netherlands.
• 8Toronto General Hospital, Canada.

Abstract

This report deals with organ retrieval procedures in both controlled and uncontrolled DCD, looking at the ethical, legal and psychosocial aspects during the different phases of the process. A recently published report by the UK Donation Ethics Committee (UKDEC) has served as an important reference document to outline the steps in the controlled DCD patient-donor pathway (1). For uncontrolled DCD the UKDEC pathway description was adapted. At the 6th International Conference in Organ Donation held in Paris in 2013 an established expert European Working Group reviewed the UKDEC reports, which were then considered along with the available published literature. Along this pathway the crucialethical, legal and psychosocial aspects have been flagged, and relevant recommendations have been formulated based on a consensus of the working group.