title: Rethinking the ethics of vital organ donations.
abstract: Accepted medical practice already violates the dead donor rule. Explicitly jettisoning the rule -- allowing vital organs to be extracted, under certain conditions, from living patients -- is a radical change only at the conceptual level. But it would expand the pools of eligible organ donors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, USA.
authors.forename: Franklin G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Truog
mesh_terms: D022561:Advanced Cardiac Life Support; D001926:Brain Death; D003243:Consciousness; D005066:Euthanasia, Passive; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000941:ethics; D020458:Third-Party Consent; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000941:ethics*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000941:ethics*; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000941:ethics*