SoO-Oct2012

Handbook of WMA Policies
World Medical Association ½ S-2012-04-2012

WMA STATEMENT
ON
ORGAN AND TISSUE DONATION
Adopted by the 63rd
WMA General Assembly, Bangkok, Thailand, October 2012
PREAMBLE
Advances in medical sciences, especially surgical techniques, tissue typing and immuno-
suppressive drugs, have made possible a significant increase in the rates of successful
transplantation of human organs and tissue. Yet, in all countries, a shortage of organ donors
results in potentially avoidable loss of life. National medical associations should support
attempts to maximise the number of donor organs available in their countries and to ensure
that the highest ethical standards are maintained. The World Medical Association has
developed this policy to assist medical associations, physicians, other health care pro-
viders and policy makers to achieve this.
• This policy is based on a number of core principles: altruism, autonomy, benefi-
cence, equity and justice. These principles should guide those developing local
policies and those operating within it, both in relation to organ procurement and to
the distribution and transplantation of donor organs. All systems and processes
should be transparent and open to scrutiny.
• This statement applies to organ and tissue donation from both deceased and living
donors. It does not apply to blood donation.
RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS
It is important that individuals are aware of the option of donation and have the oppor-
tunity to choose whether or not to donate organs and/or tissue after their death. Awareness
and choice should be facilitated in a coordinated multi-faceted approach by a variety of
stakeholders and means, including media awareness and public campaigns. In designing
such campaigns account needs to be taken of any religious or cultural sensitivities of the
target audience.
Through awareness raising campaigns, individuals should be informed of the benefits of
transplantation, the impact on the lives of those who are waiting for a transplant and the
shortage of donors available. They should be encouraged to think about their own wishes
about donation, to discuss their wishes with their family and friends and to use established
mechanisms to formally record them by opting into, or out of, donation.
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Organ and Tissue Donation

The WMA advocates informed donor choice. National medical associations in countries
that have adopted or are considering a policy of “presumed consent” (or opt-out), in which
there is an assumption that the individual wishes to donate unless there is evidence to the
contrary, or “mandated choice”, in which all persons would be required to declare whether
they wish to donate, should make every effort to ensure that these policies have been
adequately publicised and do not diminish informed donor choice, including the patient’s
right not to donate.
Consideration should be given to the establishment of national donor registries to collect
and maintain a list of citizens who have chosen either to donate or not to donate their organs
and/or tissue. Any such registry must protect individual privacy and the indi-vidual’s ability
to control the collection, use, disclosure of, and access to, his or her health information for
other purposes. Provisions must be in place to ensure that the decision to sign up to a
register is adequately informed and that registrants can withdraw from the registry easily
and quickly and without prejudice.
Living organ donation is becoming an increasingly important component of transplanta-
tion programmes in many countries. Most living donation is between related or emo-
tionally close individuals but small but increasing numbers are donating to people they do
not know. Given that there are health risks associated with living organ donation, proper
controls and safeguards are essential. Information aimed at informing people about the
possibility of donating organs as a living donor should be carefully designed so as not to
put pressure on them to donate. Potential donors should know where to obtain detailed
information about what is involved, should be informed of the inherent risks and should
know that there are safeguard in place to protect those offering to donate.
PROTOCOLS FOR ORGAN AND TISSUE DONATION FROM DECEASED DONORS
The WMA encourages its members to support the development of comprehensive, coordi-
nated national protocols for deceased (also referred to as cadaveric) organ and tissue
procurement in consultation and cooperation with all relevant stakeholders. Ethical, cul-
tural and societal issues arising in connection with donation and transplantation should be
resolved, wherever possible, in an open process involving public debate informed by sound
evidence.
National and local protocols should provide detailed information about the identification,
referral and management of potential donors as well as communication with those close to
people who have died. They should encourage the procurement of organs and tissues con-
sistent with this statement. Protocols should uphold the following key principles:
• Decisions to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging treatment should be based on an
assessment of whether the treatment is able to benefit the patient. Such decisions
must be, and must be seen to be, completely separate from any decisions about do-
nation
• The diagnosis of death should be made according to national guidelines and as
outlined in the WMA’s Declaration of Sydney on the Determination of Death and
Recovery of Organs.
Handbook of WMA Policies
World Medical Association ½ S-2012-04-2012

• There should be a clear separation between the treating team and the transplant team.
In particular, the physician who declares or certifies the death of a potential donor
should not be involved in the transplantation procedure. Nor should he/she be
responsible for the care of the organ recipient.
• Countries that carry out donation following circulatory death should have specific
and detailed protocols for this practice.
• Where an individual has expressed a clear and voluntary wish to donate organs and/
or tissue after death, steps should be taken to facilitate that wish wherever possi-
ble. This is part of the treating team’s responsibility to the dying patient.
• The WMA considers that the potential donor’s wishes are paramount. Relatives and
those close to the patient should be strongly encouraged to support a deceased per-
son’s previously expressed wish to donate organs and/or tissues.
• Those charged with approaching the patient, family members or other designated
decision maker about organ and tissue donation should possess the appropriate com-
bination of knowledge, skill and sensitivity for engaging in such discussions. Medi-
cal students and practising physicians should seek the necessary training for this task,
and the appropriate authorities should provide the resources necessary to secure that
training.
• Donation should be unconditional. In exceptional cases, requests by potential do-
nors, or their substitute decision makers, for the organ or tissue to be given to a
particular recipient may be considered if permitted by national law. Donors seeking
to apply conditions that could be seen as discriminatory against certain groups, how-
ever, should be declined.
Hospitals and other institutions where donation occurs should ensure that donation pro-
tocols are publicised amongst those likely to use them and that adequate resources are
available for their implementation. They should also foster a pro-donation culture within
the institution in which consideration of donation is the norm, rather than the exception,
when a patient dies.
The role of transplant coordination is critical to organ donation. Those performing coordi-
nation act as the key point of contact between the bereaved family and the donation team
and usually also undertake the complex logistical arrangements to make donation happen.
Their role should be recognised and supported.
Deceased organ donation must be based on the notion of a gift, freely and voluntarily given.
It should involve the voluntary and unpressured consent of the individual provided before
death (by opting in or opting out of donation depending upon the jurisdiction) or the
voluntary authorisation of those close to the deceased patient if that person’s wishes are
unknown. The WMA is strongly opposed to the commercialisation of donation and
transplantation.
Prospective donors or their substitute health care decision makers1
should have access to
accurate and relevant information, including through their general practitioners. Normally,
this will include information about:
• the procedures and definitions involved in the determination of death,
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• the testing that is undertaken to determine the suitability of the organs and/or tissue
for transplantation and that this may reveal previously unsuspected health risks in
prospective donors and their families,
• measures that may be required to preserve organ function until death is determined
and transplantation can occur,
• what will happen to the body once death has been declared,
• what organs and tissues can be donated,
• the protocol that will be followed in the event that the family objects to donation, and
• the possibility of withdrawing consent.
Prospective donors or their substitute health care decision makers should be given the
opportunity to ask questions about donation and should have their questions answered
sensitively and intelligibly.
Where both organs and tissues are to be donated, information should be provided, and
consent obtained, for both together in order to minimise distress and disruption to those
close to the deceased.
In some parts of the world a contribution towards funeral costs is given to the family of
those who donate. This can be viewed either as appropriate recognition of their altruistic
act or as a payment that compromises the voluntariness of the choice and the altruistic basis
for donation. The interpretation may depend, in part, on the way it is set up and
managed. When considering the introduction of such a system, care needs to be taken to
ensure that the core principles of altruism, autonomy, beneficence, equity and justice are
met.
Free and informed decision making requires not only the provision of information but also
the absence of coercion. Any concerns about pressure or coercion should be resolved before
the decision to donate organs or tissue is made.
Prisoners and other people who are effectively detained in institutions should be eligible to
donate after death only in exceptional circumstances where:
• there is evidence that this represents their long-standing and considered wish and
safeguards are in place to confirm this; and
• their death is from natural causes; and
• the organs are donated to a first or second degree relative either directly or through a
properly regulated pool.
In jurisdictions where the death penalty is practised, executed prisoners must not be con-
sidered as organ and/or tissue donors. While there may be individual cases where pri-soners
are acting voluntarily and free from pressure, it is impossible to put in place ade-quate
safeguards to protect against coercion in all cases.
Handbook of WMA Policies
World Medical Association ½ S-2012-04-2012

ALLOCATION OF ORGANS FROM DECEASED DONORS
The WMA considers there should be explicit policies, open to public scrutiny, governing
all aspects of organ and tissue donation and transplantation, including the management of
waiting lists for organs to ensure fair and appropriate access.
Policies governing the management of waiting lists should ensure efficiency and fairness.
Criteria that should be considered in allocating organs or tissue include:
• severity and urgency of medical need
• length of time on the waiting list
• medical probability of success measured by such factors as age, type of disease, likely
improvements in quality of life, other complications, and histocompatibility.
There should be no discrimination based on social status, lifestyle or behaviour. Non-
medical criteria should not be considered.
Living donation is becoming increasingly common as a way to overcome the shortage of
organs from deceased donors. In most cases donors provide organs to relatives or people
to whom they are emotionally close. A small number of individuals choose to donate an
organ altruistically to a stranger. Another scenario is where one or more donor and re-
cipient pairs are incompatible with each other but donate in the form of a cross-over or
pooled donation system (for example, donor A donates to recipient B, donor B donates to
recipient C and donor C donates to recipient A).
All potential donors should be given accurate and up to date information about the pro-
cedure and the risks of donation and have the opportunity to discuss the issue privately
with a member of the healthcare team or a counsellor. Normally this information will
include:
• the risks of becoming a living donor,
• the tests that are undertaken to assess suitability for donation and that this may reveal
previously unsuspected health problems,
• what will happen before, during and after donation takes place, and
• in the case of solid organs, the long-term implications of living without the donated
organ.
Prospective donors should be given the opportunity to ask questions about donation and
should have their questions answered sensitively and intelligibly.
Procedures should be in place to ensure that living donors are acting voluntarily and free
from pressure or coercion. In order to avoid donors being paid and then posing as a known
donor, independent checks should also be undertaken to verify the claimed relationship
and, where this cannot be proven, the donation should not proceed. Such checks should be
independent of the transplant team and those who are caring for the potential recipient.
Additional safeguards should be in place for vulnerable donors, including but not only,
people who are dependent in some way (such as competent minors donating to a parent or
sibling).
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Prisoners should be eligible to be living donors only in exceptional circumstances, to first
or second degree family members; evidence should be provided of any claimed rela-
tionship before the donation may proceed. Where prisoners are to be considered as living
donors, extra safeguards are required to ensure they are acting voluntarily and are not
subject to coercion.
Those who lack the capacity to consent should not be considered as living organ donors
because of their inability to understand and decide voluntarily. Exceptions may be made in
very limited circumstances, following legal and ethical review.
Donors should not lose out financially as a result of their donation and so should be
reimbursed for general and medical expenses and any loss of earnings incurred.
In some parts of the world individuals are paid for donating a kidney, although in virtually
all countries the sale of organs is unlawful. The WMA is opposed to a market in organs.
Protocols for free and informed decision making should be followed in the case of re-
cipients of organs or tissue. Normally, this will include providing information about:
• the risks of the procedure,
• the likely short, medium and long-term survival, morbidity, and quality-of-life
prospects,
• alternatives to transplantation, and
• how organs and tissues are obtained.
Organs or tissue suspected to have been obtained through unlawful means must not be
accepted for transplantation
Organs and tissues must not be sold for profit. In calculating the cost of transplantation,
charges related to the organ or tissue itself should be restricted to those costs directly
associated with its retrieval, storage, allocation and transplantation.
Transplant surgeons should seek to ensure that the organs and tissues they transplant have
been obtained in accordance with the provisions of this policy and should refrain from
transplanting organs and tissues that they know, or suspect, have not been procured in a
legal and ethical manner.
In the case of a delayed diagnosis for infection, disease or malignancy in the donor, there
should be a strong presumption that the recipient will be informed of any risk to which they
may have been exposed. Individual decisions about disclosure need to take account of the
particular circumstances, including the level and severity of risk. In most cases dis-closure
will be appropriate and should be managed carefully and sensitively.
FUTURE OPTIONS
Public health measures to reduce the demand for donated organs should be seen as a
priority, alongside moves to increase the effectiveness and success of organ donation
systems.
Handbook of WMA Policies
World Medical Association ½ S-2012-04-2012

New developments and possibilities, such as xenotransplantation and the use of stem cell
technology to repair damaged organs, should be monitored. Before their introduction into
clinical practice such technologies should be subject to scientific review and robust safety
checks as well as ethical review. Where, as with xenotransplantation, there are potential
risks that go beyond individual recipients, this process should also involve public debate.
1
The term “substitute health care decision maker” is intended to refer to any person properly
designated to make health care related decisions on behalf of the patient.