Probing Transplant and Living Donor Candidates about Their Participation in Organ Vending

Abstract

The selling of human organs for transplant is illegal in the United States and in most countries; however, such transactions still occur. Transplant hospitals and their personnel have multiple ethical duties, including (1) protecting the safety of their living donors and transplant recipients and (2) protecting the integrity of living donation and transplantation as clinical practices. To date, few psychosocial screening tools exist that pertain specifically to a person's risk or intent of pursuing organ vending (buying or selling). This article presents a series of transplant ethics case consultations that spawned the creation of a set of behavioral prompts for teams to probe with regard to organ vending when screening candidates about their suitability for participation as living donors or transplant recipients.