Registering organ donor preferences — a third way?

[摘要] Transplantation has been hailed as one of the great advances of modern medicine. However, during the year ending 31 March 2005 in the UK alone, 460 people on the transplant waiting list died before a suitable organ could be found.1 As of 21 August 2005 there are currently 6298 patients waiting for organ transplants in the UK.2 These include 5502 patients requiring kidney transplants, who are currently maintained by dialysis at a total NHS treatment cost of over £110 million a year.2 In the UK the current median waiting time for a kidney transplant is 729 days.2 Like many great medical advances the impact of transplantation on public health is limited by the available resources. Discussions of how to expand the pool of those donating organs after death tend to be polarised between the relative merits of the extremes of the ‘opt in’ registry system, as currently used in the UK, versus the ‘opt out’ presumed consent scheme seen in, for example, Spain. However, the presence of a universal primary care network in the UK suggests a third option, a true census of patients wishes.

[学科分类] 卫生学