Recent Decrease in Organ Donation from Brain-Dead Potential Organ Donors in Korea and Possible Causes
- 주제(키워드) Brain Death , Ethics , Family , Organ Donor , Organ Transplantation
- 주제(기타) Medicine, General & Internal
- 설명문(일반) [Park, Jin] Ewha Womans Univ, Dept Crit Care Med & Neurol, Seoul Hosp, Seoul, South Korea; [Kim, Claire Junga] Ewha Womans Univ, Dept Med Educ, Sch Med, Seoul, South Korea
- 등재 SCIE, SCOPUS, KCI등재
- OA유형 gold, Green Published
- 발행기관 KOREAN ACAD MEDICAL SCIENCES
- 발행년도 2020
- 총서유형 Journal
- URI http://www.dcollection.net/handler/ewha/000000169352
- 본문언어 영어
- Published As https://dx.doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e94
- PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32242345
초록/요약
Background: In 1999, the Organ Transplantation Act legalized organ donation from brain-dead patients. As a result of the government's continued efforts, the number of brain-dead donors steadily increased from 2002 through 2016. However, the number has declined since 2017. This paper examined the possible reasons behind the decline in brain-dead organ donation. Methods: This investigation was an analysis of published data from the Korea Organ Donation Agency annual reports from 2013 to 2018. Results: The number of brain-dead organ donors in Korea rose steadily until 2016, declined in 2017 for the first time since 2002, and then dropped sharply in 2018. Although the number of brain-dead potential organ donors increased between 2017 and 2018, the number of eligible donors decreased, suggesting that patient families rejected the brain-death determination process and brain-dead organ donation. Statistics gathered during identification of brain-dead potential donors and actual donations confirm that rejection or withdrawal of consent by the family has increased. During the same period when donation from brain- dead patients decreased, five events occurred: 1) compensation for donor families was abolished; 2) an incident of mistreatment of a brain-dead donor's remains occurred; 3) the Life-Sustaining Treatment Act was enacted, providing a legal procedure whereby families of brain-dead patients could forgo life-sustaining treatment; 4) residents' work week was limited to 80 hours; and 5) the Labor Standards Law was amended. Conclusion: Fewer eligible donors in spite ofan increase in brain-dead potential organ donors suggests that reduction in these donations resulted mainly from factors associated with family consent. Among such factors, implementation of the Life-sustaining Treatment Act appears to be most important. Abolition of family compensation and the incident in which a brain-dead donor's remains were mistreated may also have influenced family consent.
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