[Intra-familial graft. Respecting public health regulation and professional confidentiality may be incompatible]

Under specific conditions, French law authorizes organ donation despite the donor's seropositivity for certain infectious conditions. The recipient must however be informed of the potential risk of graft-related infection. Anonymous donation being the rule, the rights of the donor are respected since his/her serological status remains a medical secret. However, an exception to the rule of anonymous donation is allowed for organ donation between family members. In such a situation--often justified by the urgent nature of the transplantation--the donor's serological status would have to be revealed to the recipient, breaking the rule of medical secrecy. The physician who breaks the rule is simply implementing legal regulations (with the subsequent protection against any penal or disciplinary measures) but nevertheless performs an ethically questionable act. The recompense for donation would be an incongruent violation of personal rights. At the present time, there does not appear to be a satisfactory solution to this dilemma. The only solution that could be put forward would be to ask the donor to voluntarily inform the recipient of his/her seropositivity.