title: [Critical appraisal of organ procurement under Maastricht 3 condition].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Unité de neuro-anesthésie-réanimation, groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpétrière, 47-83, boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75651 Paris cedex 13, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Puybasset
authors.forename: J-E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Bazin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beloucif
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bizouarn
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Crozier
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Devalois
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eon
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fieux
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gisquet
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guibet-Lafaye
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kentish
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lienhart
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nicolas-Robin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otero Lopez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pelluchon
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Roussin
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Beydon
mesh_terms: D060666:Airway Extubation; D000776:Anesthesiology; D001926:Brain Death; D001930:Brain Injuries; D003128:Coma; D005602:France; D006323:Heart Arrest; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia; D012042:Registries; D012955:Societies, Medical; D020521:Stroke; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D028761:Withholding Treatment