Public policy governing organ and tissue procurement in the United States: results from the National Organ and Tissue Procurement Study
Article Abstract:
Improved public health education may increase the low rate of organ and tissue donation. Legislation mandates that hospital staff inquire about the willingness to donate. Analysts interviewed 1,809 health care professionals in 23 acute-care hospitals with respect to their practice of requesting donations. Based on 841 eligible patient deaths, health care providers correctly identified more than 80 percent of eligible donors after the fact. Health care team members approached 86.6% of the families regarding organ donations. Families of patients who were younger, female, and received care in a medical or surgical ward received fewer donation requests. Tissue and cornea donation requests happened much less frequently, in about two-thirds of all eligible cases. Only 79 of 170 approached families agreed to donate organs. The overall willingness to donate was about 34%. More educational efforts need to address the reluctance of families to donate organs and tissues of their deceased.
Publication Name: Annals of Internal Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0003-4819
Year: 1995
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Odds and ends: trust and the debate over medical futility
Article Abstract:
The concept of medical futility may only prove useful if patients trust their doctors' assessment that a treatment would be futile. Medical futility can be defined quantitatively and qualitatively. Its critics may dismiss the concept as the imposition of bioethicists' morality. Advocates of medical futility stress the physician's professional integrity to advise and inform patients of a treatment's futility. The concept will remain academic if physicians do not work to gain and maintain the trust of their patients. Patients who trust their doctors may relinquish their quest for long-shot treatments.
Publication Name: Annals of Internal Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0003-4819
Year: 1996
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Mandated choice for organ donation: time to give it a try
Article Abstract:
Mandated choice should help improve the number of organs available for transplant. Mandated choice would require adults to declare whether they wished to donate their organs when they die. This wish, unlike the current system, could not be overridden by families. Mandated choice would get around the problems of trying to obtain family consent, which under the stress of the situation, is often refused. It would also force people to consider the issue, and since the public generally approves of organ donation, this, too, could increase the number of donors.
Publication Name: Annals of Internal Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0003-4819
Year: 1996
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