Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T12:18:13.103Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is There a Particular Ethical Practice and Policy Space in North America for Uncontrolled Kidney Donation after Circulatory Death?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Abstract

Despite successful transplantation outcomes in Europe, uncontrolled organ donation after circulatory determination of death (uDCDD) has essentially been a non-starter in North America. In this paper, I identify and explore a set of interesting, ethics-related considerations that are of relevance to this organ donation-transplantation practice. The analysis provides a theoretical platform for my development of a proposal for the creation of a particular ethical practice and policy space for kidney uDCDD in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes and aims to effectively address the various, identified challenges and constraints.

Type
Independent Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dominguez-Gil, B., Duranteau, J., Mateos, A., Nunez, J. R., and Cheisson, G. et al., “Uncontrolled Donation after Circulatory Death: European Practices and Recommendations for the Development and Optimization of an Effective Programme,” Transplant International (2015); K. G. Munjal, S. P. Wall, L. R. Goldfrank, A. Gilbert, and B. J. Kaufman et al., “A Rationale in Support of Uncontrolled Donation After Circulatory Determination of Death,” Hastings Center Report 43, no. 1 (2013): 19-26; M. J. Reed and S. B. H. Lua, “Uncontrolled Organ Donation after Circulatory Death: Potential Donors in the Emergency Department,” Emergency Medicine Journal (2013); S. P. Wall, B. J. Kaufman, A. J. Gilbert, Y. Yushkov, and M. Goldstein et al., “Derivation of the Uncontrolled Donation after Circulatory Determination of Death Protocol for New York City,” American Journal of Transplantation 11 (2011): 1417-1426.Google Scholar
Dominguez-Gil, B., Haase-Kromwijk, B., van Leiden, H., Neuberger, J., and Coene, L. et al., “Current Situation of Donation after Circulatory Death in European Countries,” Transplant International 24 (2011): 676-686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Munjal et al., supra note 2; Dominguez-Gil et al., supra note 1; U.S. Institute of Medicine Committee on Increasing Rates of Organ Donation, Childress, J. F., and Liverman, C. T., Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action (Washington, D.C.: National Academics Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Kirby, J., “Ethically-Informed, Pragmatic Conditions for Organ Donation after Cardiocirculatory Death: Could They Assist in Policy Development,” Journal of Clinical Ethics 24, no. 4 (2013): 373-80; see Dominguez-Gil et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
Akoh, J. A., “Kidney Donation after Cardiac Death,” World Journal of Nephrology 1, no. 3 (2012): 79-91; Dominguez-Gil et al., supra note 1; S. P. Wall, K. G. Munjal, N. N. Dubler, and L. R. Goldfrank, “Uncontrolled Organ Donation after Circulatory Determination of Death: US Policy Failures and Call to Action,” Annals of Emergency Medicine 63, no. 4 (2014): 392-400.Google Scholar
Volk, M. L., Warren, G. J. W., Anspach, R. R., Couper, M. P., and Merion, R. M., “Attitudes of the American Public Toward Organ Donation after Uncontrolled (Sudden) Cardiac Death,” American Journal of Transplantation 10 (2010): 675-680.Google Scholar
Ortega-Deballon, I., Hornby, L., and Shemie, S. D., “Protocols for Uncontrolled Donation after Circulatory Death: A Systematic Review of International Guidelines, Practices and Transplant Outcomes,” Critical Care 19 (2015): 268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wind, J., Faut, M., van Smaalen, T. C., and Heurn, E. L. W., “Variability in Protocols on Donation after Circulatory Death in Europe,” Critical Care 17 (2013): R217.Google Scholar
See Dominguez-Gil et al., supra note 1; Reed and Lua, supra note 1.Google Scholar
See Ortega-Deballon et al., supra note 7; see Wind et al., supra note 8.Google Scholar
Piazza, O., Romano, R., Cotena, S., Santa-niello, W., and De Robertis, E., “Maximum Tolerable Warm Ischaemia Time in Transplantation from Non-Heart-Beating-Donors,” Trends in Anaesthesia and Critical Care 3 (2013): 72-76; J. A. Light, “The Washington, D.C. Experience with Uncontrolled Donation after Circulatory Determination of Death: Promises and Pitfalls,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 36, no. 4 (2008): 735-739; J. A. Light, D. Y. Barhyte, F. A. Gage, T. R. Sasaki, and A. O. Aquino, “Long-Term Graft Survival after Transplantation with Kidneys from Uncontrolled Nonheartbeating Donors,” Transplantation 68, no. 12 (1999): 1910-1912.Google Scholar
Marquis, D., “Are DCD Donors Dead?” Hastings Center Report 40, no. 3 (2010): 24-31; J. L. Bernat, “On Noncongruence between the Concept and Determination of Death,” Hastings Center Report 43, no. 6 (2013): 25-33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Wind et al., supra note 8.Google Scholar
See Marquis, supra note 12.Google Scholar
Rodriguez-Arias, D. and Véliz, C., “The Death Debates: A Call for Public Deliberation,” Hastings Center Report 43, no. 6 (2013): 34-35.Google Scholar
See Wall et al., supra note 5.Google Scholar
Gries, C. J., White, D. B., Truog, R. D., Dubois, J., and Cosio, C. C. et al., “An Official American Thoracic Society/International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation/Society of Critical Care Medicine / Association of Organ and Procurement Organizations/United Network of Organ Sharing Statement: Ethical and Policy Considerations in Organ Donation after Circulatory Determination of Death,” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 188, no. 1 (2013): 103-109, at 106.Google Scholar
See Volk et al., supra note 6; Rodriguez-Arias, D., Wright, L., and Paredes, D., “Success Factors and Ethical Challenges of the Spanish Model of Organ Donation,” The Lancet 376 (2010): 1109-1111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Wall et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
Caplan, A., “The Use of Prisoners as Sources of Organs – an Ethically Dubious Practice,” American Journal of Bioethics 11 (2011): 1-5.Google Scholar
See Dominguez-Gil et al., supra note 2.Google Scholar
See Reed and Lua, supra note 1; Kirby, supra note 4.Google Scholar
See Ortega-Deballon et al., supra note 7.Google Scholar
See Wall et al., supra note 5; Wind, J., Hoogland, E. R. P., and van Heurn, L. W. E., “Preservation Techniques for Donors after Cardiac Death Kidneys,” Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation 16 (2011): 157-161; Light, supra note 11; D. Talbot, and A. D'Alessandro, eds., Organ Donation and Transplantation after Cardiac Death (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009): at 273-275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Kirby, supra note 4; Wall et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar