Directed and conditional deceased donor organ donations: laws and misconceptions.

摘要

The Human Tissue Act 2004 (hereafter the 2004 Act), which (inter alia) consolidated the law on organ donation and repealed earlier legislation, came into effect in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland on 1 September 2006. The Human Tissue Authority (HTA),2 the regulatory body established by the 2004 Act, and the NHS Blood and Transplant Organ Donation and Transplantation Directorate (NHSBT ODT), formerly known as UK Transplant (UKT),3 the national organ allocation body, continue to follow a long-established policy of accepting deceased donor organ donations only on an undirected, or 'unconditional' basis.4 The 'central principle' of organ allocation from deceased donors is that they must go to the person who is most in need and has the best match with the donor-a donor can neither direct the organ to a specific recipient nor impose conditions as to who shall be chosen; all such restrictions may be ignored as invalid.