The Ethics of Organ Donation in Patients Who Lack the Capacity for Decision Making

Abstract

Free and informed consent is the legal and ethical basis for organ donation from living donors, and is a requirement for making an autonomous health decision. In clinical practice, health-care providers are required to respect four bioethical principles: respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice (Beauchamp & Childress, 2012), with the best interest of their patients in mind. Yet there are bioethical concerns behind organ procurement from living donors who have never attained capacity, do not yet have the capacity, or have permanently lost the capacity for decision making. A consensus statement by the Live Organ Donor Consensus Group (Abecassis et al., 2000) protects these donors’ well-being and autonomy, but there still is a need to raise ethical awareness about the decision-making process regarding vulnerable potential donors. Health-care providers who are staff members in transplant clinics should be aware of the current consensus statement, commit to essential bioethical principles surrounding organ donation, and advocate for vulnerable living donors.