When the living and the deceased don't agree on organ donation

Science Codex | University of Chicago Medical Center

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the 2006 Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) or enacted similar legislation giving individuals the "First Person Authorization" (FPA) to consent to organ donation after death via a signed donor card or driver's license, or by enrollment in a donor registry. While such laws give hospitals legal authority to proceed with organ procurement without consent of the registered donor's family, a new study shows that organ procurement organizations' implementation of FPA has been inconsistent and incomplete.

"Sometimes what we preach and what we practice may not be the same thing, especially when dealing with very sensitive issues such as organ donation," said W. James Chon, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine, primary author of the study, which was published early online in the American Journal of Transplantation

Chon and his colleagues conducted a web-based survey of the executive directors of 58 organ procurement organizations to assess their policies and practices regarding donations from registered donors in cases of family objections. Most of the respondents estimated the frequency of family objection as less than 10 percent.
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