title: Donor advocacy with special reference to Belgium.
abstract: Before any published Belgian law, EU Directive, and/or EU Action Plan, the donor advocate was naturally a member of the transplantation team performing living kidney donation. The need of donor advocacy appeared obvious with liver living donation, which was and is still a risky procedure. Today, it is clear that the donor advocacy must not be limited to living donation but extended to brain-dead and cardiac-dead donation. Nevertheless, its complexity will need experienced persons in the field of organ donation as well as transplantation, while remembering that patients' first right is the right to donate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Abdominal Surgery and Transplantation, CHU Sart Tilman, Liège, Belgium. jean-paul.squifflet@chir-transplantation.be
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Squifflet
mesh_terms: D001530:Belgium; D001926:Brain Death; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D019520:Living Donors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D018579:Patient Selection; D012306:Risk; D014019:Tissue Donors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014850:Waiting Lists