The COVID-19 pandemic and organ donation and transplantation: ethical issues.
BMC Med Ethics
; 22(1): 142, 2021 10 21.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1477414
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the health system worldwide. The organ and tissue donation and transplantation (OTDT) system is no exception and has had to face ethical challenges related to the pandemic, such as risks of infection and resource allocation. In this setting, many Canadian transplant programs halted their activities during the first wave of the pandemic.METHOD:
To inform future ethical guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic or other public health emergencies of international concern, we conducted a literature review to summarize the ethical issues.RESULTS:
This literature review identified three categories of ethical challenges. The first one describes the general ethical issues and challenges reported by OTDT organizations and transplantation programs, such as risks of COVID-19 transmission and infection to transplant recipients and healthcare professionals during the transplant process, risk of patient waitlist mortality or further resource strain where transplant procedures have been delayed or halted, and resource allocation. The second category describes ethical challenges related to informed consent in the context of uncertainty and virtual consent. Finally, the third category describes ethical issues related to organ allocation, such as social considerations in selecting transplant candidates.CONCLUSION:
This literature review highlights the salient ethical issues related to OTDT during the current COVID-19 pandemic. As medical and scientific knowledge about COVID-19 increases, the uncertainties related to this disease will decrease and the associated ethical issues will continue to evolve.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Tissue and Organ Procurement
/
Organ Transplantation
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
/
Reviews
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Med Ethics
Journal subject:
Ethics
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12910-021-00711-6
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