Title |
When the Living and the Deceased Cannot Agree on Organ Donation: A Survey of US Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs)
|
---|---|
Published in |
American Journal of Transplantation, January 2014
|
DOI | 10.1111/ajt.12519 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
W.J. Chon, M.A. Josephson, E.J. Gordon, Y.T. Becker, P. Witkowski, D.J. Arwindekar, A. Naik, J.R. Thistlethwaite, C. Liao, L.F. Ross |
Abstract |
The legal concept of first person authorization (FPA) is based on the principle that a decision by a person with decision-making capacity should be respected even after he or she dies. Although the transplant community largely supports this concept, its implementation has not been universal. We conducted a web-based survey of all 58 Organ Procurement Organization (OPO)executive directors in the United States to assess OPOs' procurement policies and practices in the context of family objections. All 58 respondents(100%) responded to our survey. All OPOs except one have an online donor registration website. Most OPOs(89%) (51 of 57 respondents) estimated that the frequency of family objecting to organ donation in cases of registered donors was <10%. No OPOs reported the frequency to be higher than 25%. Only 50% (27 of 54) of the OPOs have a written policy on handling family objections. Approximately 80% of the OPOs reported honoring FPA. However, in the past 5 years, 20 OPOs (35%) have not yet participated in organ procurement from a registered deceased donor over family objection. Further research to identify the barriers and possible solutions to implementing FPA is warranted. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 3 | 50% |
Uruguay | 1 | 17% |
Unknown | 2 | 33% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 3 | 50% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 33% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 17% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 1 | 3% |
Argentina | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 33 | 94% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 9 | 26% |
Student > Bachelor | 8 | 23% |
Researcher | 4 | 11% |
Professor > Associate Professor | 4 | 11% |
Other | 3 | 9% |
Other | 4 | 11% |
Unknown | 3 | 9% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Medicine and Dentistry | 10 | 29% |
Social Sciences | 6 | 17% |
Philosophy | 2 | 6% |
Engineering | 2 | 6% |
Chemistry | 2 | 6% |
Other | 7 | 20% |
Unknown | 6 | 17% |