Three patterns of voluntary consent in the case of adult-to-adult living related liver transplantation in Japan.
To elucidate the psychosocial aspects of the donors' decisions to engage in adult-to-adult living related liver transplantation, we interviewed a total of five institutional ethics committee members who had experience with reassessing informed consent prior to surgery. Qualitative analysis revealed several nuances of voluntary consent consisting of three patterns: "unconditional consent" is consent from the bottom of one's heart to save a family member's life; "pressured consent" describes a donor who feels implicit pressure to donate despite fear; and "ulterior-motivated consent" defines a donor who has a hidden motive. This study diverges from previous work in that it employs a qualitative approach to deconstructing the psychosocial intricacies of the informed consent process in adult-to-adult LRLT. This initial study raises several questions on the meaning of voluntary informed consent in adult-to-adult living related liver transplantation.
Fujita
M
M
Biomedical Ethics, School of Public Health, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
Slingsby
B T
BT
Akabayashi
A
A
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007564:Japan; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology*; D019520:Living Donors / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D018454:Spouses