title: Does uncontrolled cardiac death for organ donation raise ethical questions? An opinion survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Organ donation after uncontrolled cardiac death raises complex ethical issues. We conducted a survey in a large hospital staff population, including caregivers and administrators, to determine their ethical viewpoints regarding organ donation after uncontrolled cardiac death.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multicenter observational survey using a questionnaire, including information on the practical modalities of the procedure. Respondents were asked to answer 15 detailed ethical questions corresponding to different ethical issues raised in the literature. Ethical concerns was defined when respondents expressed ethical concerns in their answers to at least three of nine specifically selected ethical questions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One thousand one hundred ninety-six questionnaires were received, and 1057 could be analysed. According to our definition, 573 respondents out of 1057 (54%) had ethical concerns with regard to donation after cardiac death and 484 (46 %) had no ethical concerns. Physicians (55%) and particularly junior intensivists (65%) tended to have more ethical issues than nurses (52%) and hospital managers (37%). Junior intensivists had more ethical issues than senior intensivists (59%), emergency room physicians (46%) and transplant specialists (43%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Only 46% of hospital-based caregivers and managers appear to accept easily the legitimacy of organ donation after cardiac death. A significant number of respondents especially intensivists, expressed concerns over the dilemma between the interests of the individual and those of society. These results underline the need to better inform both healthcare professionals and the general population to help to the development of such procedure.
authors.affiliation: Medical Intensive Care Department, Poitiers University and Poitiers University Hospital, Poitiers, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Goudet
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Albouy-Llaty
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Migeot
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pain
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dayhot-Fizelier
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pinsard
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beloucif
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Robert
mesh_terms: D003643:Death; D003657:Decision Making; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000941:ethics*