Organ Transplantation 2024;15(3):359-366

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-7445.2024033

The question of death criteria in human organ donation

Shunliang YANG 1 ; Zhelong JIANG 2 ; Lizhi LYU 2 ; Yushu LI 2 ; Dong WANG 1

Affiliations

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Keywords

Organ donation; Death criteria; Donation after brain death; Donation after cardiac death; Organ transplantation; Ethics; Informed consent; Self-selection

Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

Donation after death is the most important ethical principle to carry out organ donation after citizens’ death. The newly-revised Regulations on Human Organ Donation and Transplantation does not define death, and avoids the key question of “whether to recognize brain death”. Certain legal risks or damages to the rights and interests of donors may exist in organ donation. Death is an inevitable part of human life. It is necessary to establish specific criteria, which is also the only approach, to define death in any era. Death criteria are established based on the view of death, and restricted by the development level of productive forces and other social factors. The determination of death criteria hugely varies between China and the West. To standardize organ donation and transplantation and promote high-quality development of organ donation, medical staff must adhere to the principle of pure motivation, take informed consents as the premise, respect the donors' and their close relatives' rights to choose their own death criteria, strictly follow the death judgment procedures and operating norms, and ensure the scientificity, accuracy and fairness of death determination.