Bioethic council to discuss live donors and organ payment

TransplantationShould a live organ donor programme be implemented in Ireland? More controversially, should people receive financial incentives to donate their organs?

These issues will be considered at the Irish Council for Bioethic's 2005 annual lecture entitled Organs for Sale? - Regulation of a Market for Human Organ Donation.

Globally, the number of people awaiting an organ transplant is far greater than the number of organs being donated. Traditionally, human organs used in transplants in Ireland are acquired from brain dead donors. Given the recognised shortfall in the supply of human organs for transplantation, a number of options have been suggested to increase donor organs supply. One option being investigated in Ireland is the establishment of a live donor programme.

A commercialised market in human organs from live donors should increase the number of people willing to donate their organs, thereby alleviating the shortfall in suitable organs. In addition, recent evidence shows the success rate from a living donor organ transplant is greater than that from a dead donor.

It has been argued that it should be the decision of the donor, ie they should indicate what they wish to do with their body. This is dependent on the donor being informed of the risks and benefits of organ donation.

Commercialisation of organ donation could be deemed as treating donors as a commodity, thereby diminishing the dignity and respect of the donor as a person. It could also lead to wrongful exploitation of donors, especially those who are financially vulnerable.

Other options exist which could increase the number of available donor organs without a need for a financial incentive. One such option is a system of presumed consent, which presumes a person wishes to be an organ donor unless they state otherwise to relevant authorities. This emphasises the value of solidarity in contrast to the opting in system, in which citizens need to actively give consent, which emphasises the values of autonomy and personal choice.

The bioethics lecture will be chaired by cardiac surgeon and The Irish Times Health Supplement columnist Dr Maurice Neligan.

Prof John Harris (University of Manchester) will be speaking in favour of a regulated open commercial market in donor organs. Under this system a national health authority or equivalent body would regulate and distribute purchased organs and tissues. He supports a system where bodies of the dead should become public property so they can be used to make up for the growing shortage of transplant organs.

Prof Paul Schotsmans (University of Leuven, Belgium) will outline the argument against commercialisation on the basis that it denigrates the absolute value of the individual. He is an advocate of presumed consent. In Europe, countries with high donation rates generally have the presumed consent model.

The lecture takes place in the O'Flanagan Lecture Theatre, Royal College of Surgeons, 123 St Stephen's Green on Wednesday, May 11th (7pm). Admission is free but people must apply for tickets from the Irish Council for Bioethics via www.bioethics.ie Some tickets are available at tel: 01 6380920. For further information contact: Siobhán O'Sullivan, scientific director, Irish Council for Bioethics, tel: 01-6611901.