Living organ donations: a comparison between the positions of national bioethics committees

Numerous documents have been published by the national bioethics committees of the European Union and Council of Europe member countries on the subject of organ transplantation. The present paper examines those that address the question of living donation with a focus on kidney grafts. Although it is not possible to ensure absolute completeness since not all the documents produced over the years are accessible and English translations are often lacking, this review covered evaluations of the most significant ones. There has been a preponderance of attention to the issue of informed consent, while the issue of donor risk has been addressed only summarily, if at all.