Deceased Donation in Uterus Transplantation Trials: Novelty, Consent, and Surrogate Decision Making

摘要

In my 2016 paper "Should Deceased Donation be Morally Preferred in Uterus Transplantation Trials?" I explored a number of the ethical concerns and questions posed by the use of living donors in uterus transplantation (UTx) trials, and asked whether there might, as a result, exist compelling moral reasons for teams conducting UTx research to prefer the use of uteri from deceased donors. After consideration of a number of factors such as the harms associated with living donation, the possibility of donor regret, and the potential for serious threats to donor autonomy and consent, I suggested that all things being equal a deceased donor model should be preferred for uterus transplantation. All things, however, were not equal and I therefore suggested that at that moment in time-given uncertainties regarding the likelihood of success associated with each donor model and questions regarding the availability of deceased donor uteri-the use of uteri from both living and deceased donors could be justified provided that certain background conditions were met (Williams, 2016).