title: Ethically informed pragmatic conditions for organ donation after cardiocirculatory death: could they assist in policy development?
abstract: The modern practice of organ donation after cardiocirculatory death (DCD) emerged in the 1990s as a response to the alarmingly wide gap between the number of transplantable organs available through organ donation after neurological death and the urgent organ transplantation needs of persons in end-organ failure. Various important ethical dimensions of DCD have been considered and debated by prominent organ donation/transplantation theorists and clinicians. In this article, consideration of some of these ethical elements provides a foundation for a proposed set of ethically informed, pragmatic conditions that could assist in the development of health policies to guide the practice of organ donation after cardiocirculatory death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioethics in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. JeffreyKirby@dal.ca
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kirby
mesh_terms: D001926:Brain Death; D002319:Cardiovascular System; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003643:Death; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards; D011050:Policy Making; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000941:ethics*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D035501:Uncertainty; D014481:United States