ACTA FAC MED NAISS 2018;35(2):87-93

Review article

UDC: 616-089.843:614.253

DOI: 10.2478/afmnai-2018-0010

 

Ethics in Organ Transplantation

 

Svetlana Milijić1,2, Aleksandar Nikolić2

1National Health Insurance Fund, Niš Branch Office, Niš, Serbia
2University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Niš, Serbia



summary

Organ transplantation is specific medical procedure which is used as a way of treatment. Transplantation is often the only way of curing a patient. Today, hundreds of people in the world live successfully with donor organs, and transplantations as medical interventions are performed routinely. In Europe, about 10,000 patients are saved annually by transplantation, but there are far larger numbers of those waiting for their so-called rescue organ.
In all countries, transplant medicine is regulated by special laws, regulations and conventions that provide medical, legal, and ethical regulations. Organ donation is an act of charity and giving, and not a contract on movement.
Righteousness and fairness are emphasized in transplantation medicine.
The question of organ transplanting affects the most intimate issues of human integrity, human dignity, health and illness. That is why certain instructions, rules of conduct and treatment are required from ethics. Today, in ethical dilemmas regarding organ transplantation, less emphasis is placed on imperative ethics, which emphasizes the idea of obligation, and more emphasis is placed on the so-called indicative ethics in which the idea of general accountability and solidarity is in the foreground. In cases of transplanting organs from a living patient, it is a doctor`s duty to provide complete information to the donor and the recipient about the purpose and nature of the procedure itself, success probability, consequences, possible risks and noted adverse reactions. In cases of transplanting from a cadaver, the basic ethical question is defining brain death and respect for the deceased.
The main reason of a small number of donors is lack of information, fear of organ donating and ethical questions related to transplantation.


Key words: transplantation, ethics, donor, cadaver, brain death