Describing and Assessing the Views of Transplant Professionals in Ontario about Directed Organ Donations from Deceased Donors: A Qualitative Study

In Ontario, the organs of deceased donors are usually allocated to those recipients who are ranked highest on the province’s waiting list for transplant surgery. However, on rare occasion, a donor, or the donor’s family, will request that an organ be given to a designated recipient or designated group of recipients. The ethical acceptability of these so-called “directed donations” of organs from deceased donors is debated in the transplant literature. The purpose of this study was to elicit the views of a group of transplant professionals in Ontario on the question, “Under what circumstances, if any, should a donor or the donor’s family be allowed to choose the recipient of the organ?” Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 Ontario transplant professionals from a range of clinical disciplines. An analysis of these interviews revealed several practical and ethical considerations that the transplant professionals believed to be important in assessing the acceptability of directed donations.MAS