What are the implications of being an organ donor?

What are the implications of being an organ donor?

Immediate, surgery-related risks of organ donation include pain, infection, hernia, bleeding, blood clots, wound complications and, in rare cases, death. Long-term follow-up information on living-organ donors is limited, and studies are ongoing.

What are the ethical dilemmas associated with organ procurement?

Major ethical concerns about organ donation by living related donors focus on the possibility of undue influence and emotional pressure and coercion. By contrast, the living unrelated donor lacks genetic ties to the recipient. Living unrelated donors respond to a need that may come to their attention in various ways.

What role does the organ procurement organization play in organ donation?

The OPO’s role is to assess donor potential, collect and convey accurate clinical information, and follow national policies for offering organs.

What hospital is required to report to the organ procurement organization?

OPO regulations at §486.322 (a) require that OPOs have a written agreement in place with 95 percent of all participating Medicare and Medicaid hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals that have both a ventilator and an operating room.

What are the three types of organ donations?

Many lives are saved through directed, non-directed, and paired exchange living donation.

What are the ethical issues with organ transplantation?

Organ transplantation is unique in that it involves two patients, donor and recipient, both of whose interests must be protected. Xenotransplantation is a novel proposal for addressing the shortage of transplantable organs that can pose distinctive ethical challenges with respect to patient safety and public health.

Who is responsible for coordinating the organ donation process?

OPOs are the nonprofit organizations that are responsible for coordinating the complex multi‐step process of organ donation, procurement, and distribution, including obtaining donation authorization and managing potential donors according to donor management protocols 2 – 6 .

What are the pros and cons of organ donation?

(4) Surrogate mothers, blood, sperm, and egg donors are legal and widely advertised. Those individuals who are against incentives stress the following possible problems: (1) It will cause a loss of “altruistic” donation.

Is it against the law to donate human organs?

The federal law governing organ donation prohibits the exchange of human organs for “valuable consideration” [4], meaning anything of value, and the reduction of a prisoner’s sentence by up to 180 days falls squarely within this statutory definition [5]. Critics of the proposed bill also decried the program as unethical and potentially dangerous.

How many organ procurement organizations are there in the US?

Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) are not-for-profit organizations responsible for recovering organs from deceased donors for transplantation in the U.S. There are 58 OPOs, each mandated by federal law to perform this life-saving mission in their assigned donation service area.

What does OPO stand for in organ procurement?

OPOs are on the front-line of organ procurement, and work directly with a decedent’s family during the emotional discussion about potential donation in order to facilitate the gift of life. For every successful match, the OPO facilitates authorization, testing, the recovery of donor organs and delivery to the transplant center.

How does the organ procurement and Transplantation Network work?

This legislation established a national computer registry, called the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, for matching donor organs to waiting recipients. The OPTN is managed by UNOS, and all 57 OPOs use the UNOS proprietary computer system to match and place the organs that they procure.

How does the organ utilization tool ( out ) help?

The Organ Utilization Tool (OUT) provides outcomes data to help OPOs increase local organ recovery rates and understand and influence organ acceptance behavior at centers in their donation service area.