Critical appraisal of organ procurement under Maastricht 3 condition

The ethics committee of the French Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care (Sfar) has been requested by the French Biomedical Agency to consider the issue of organ donation in patients after a decision of withdrawing life supporting therapies has been taken. This category of organ donation is perfo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annales françaises d'anesthésie et de réanimation 2012-05, Vol.31 (5), p.454-461
Main Authors: Puybasset, L, Bazin, J-E, Beloucif, S, Bizouarn, P, Crozier, S, Devalois, B, Eon, B, Fieux, F, Gisquet, E, Guibet-Lafaye, C, Kentish, N, Lienhart, A, Nicolas-Robin, A, Otero Lopez, M, Pelluchon, C, Roussin, F, Beydon, L
Format: Article
Language:fre
Subjects:
Airway Extubation
Anesthesiology
Brain Death
Brain Injuries
Coma
France
Heart Arrest
Humans
Hypoxia
Registries
Societies, Medical
Stroke
Tissue and Organ Procurement - ethics
Tissue and Organ Procurement - legislation & jurisprudence
Tissue and Organ Procurement - standards
Withholding Treatment
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Summary:The ethics committee of the French Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care (Sfar) has been requested by the French Biomedical Agency to consider the issue of organ donation in patients after a decision of withdrawing life supporting therapies has been taken. This category of organ donation is performed in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium. The three former countries have published recommendations, which formalize procedures and operations. The Sfar ethics committee has considered this issue and envisioned the different aspects of the whole process. Consequently, it sounds a note of caution regarding the applicability of this type of organ procurement in unselected patient following a decision to withdraw life supporting therapies. According to the French regulation concerning organ procurement in brain dead patients, the committee stresses the need to restrict this specific way of procurement to severely brain injured patients, once confirmatory investigations predicting a catastrophic prognosis have been performed. It suggests that the nature of the confirmatory investigation required should be formalized by the French Biomedical Agency on behalf of the French parliamentarians. This should help preserving population trust regarding organ procurement and provide a framework to medical decision. This text has been endorsed by the Sfar.
ISSN:1769-6623
DOI:10.1016/j.annfar.2012.02.009