Integration of Routine Parental Request of Organ Donation in End-of-Life Care of Children with Neurologic Disorders in the UK: Unresolved Medical, Legal, Cultural, and Religious Challenges

Title

Integration of Routine Parental Request of Organ Donation in End-of-Life Care of Children with Neurologic Disorders in the UK: Unresolved Medical, Legal, Cultural, and Religious Challenges

Creator

Rady M Y

Publisher

Neurocritical care

Date

2020

Subject

children; end-of-life care; opt-out system; organ donation; pediatrics; practice guidelines; presumed consent; UK; United Kingdom

Description

The UK adopted the opt-out system (deemed or presumed consent) in end-of-life organ donation enforceable in May 2020. Presumed consent applies to adults but not children. Transplant advocates have recommended that all children on end-of-life care should be referred for potential organ donation to increase the supply of transplantable organs in the UK. To buttress this objective, a UK survey of parents of deceased children mostly with neurologic disorders secondary to severe brain injuries recommended the integration of routine parental discussion of donation regardless of donation eligibility in end-of-life care. Donation discussions emphasize the utility and suitability of organs in dying children for transplantation to maximize consent rate. To ensure that this recommendation does not harm children and parents, contemporary medical, legal, cultural, and religious challenges to end-of-life organ donation should be disclosed in parental discussion of donation and resolved appropriately. To that effect, it is urged that: (1) practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of neurologic disorders secondary to severe brain injuries in children are updated and aligned with recent advances in neuroscience to eliminate potential errors from premature treatment discontinuation and/or incorrect diagnosis of death by brain(stem) criteria, (2) transparent and non-biased disclosure of all empiric information when discussing donation to ensure informed parental decision-making, and (3) a societal dialogue is conducted on the legal, cultural, and religious consequences of integration of routine donation discussion and referral in end-of-life care of children in the UK.

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Citation List Month

July 2020 List

Collection

Citation

Rady M Y, “Integration of Routine Parental Request of Organ Donation in End-of-Life Care of Children with Neurologic Disorders in the UK: Unresolved Medical, Legal, Cultural, and Religious Challenges,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed March 19, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/17150.