Presumed Consent: A Potential Tool for Countries Experiencing an Organ Donation Crisis

There is currently an inadequate supply of allografts to meet the number of transplant candidates worldwide. A number of controversial policies, including implementation of a presumed consent organ donation system, have been considered to rectify the organ donation crisis.

A secondary retrospective data analysis aimed to assess the impact of switching to a presumed consent organ donation model on organ donation rates.

Deceased organ donation rates were compared before and after countries adopted presumed consent.

Six countries met entry criteria. All six countries had an increase in liver donation rates, while 4 out of the six countries had an increase in kidney donation rates. The overall mean (± SD) liver donation rate was 3.23 (± 0.97) per million population (pmp) before the transition and 6.46 (± 1.81) pmp after the transition (p < 0.0001). The overall mean (± SD) kidney donation rate was 17.94 (± 3.34) pmp before the transition and 26.58 (± 4.23) pmp after the transition (p < 0.0001). The percentage increase in liver and kidney donation rates varied among countries, ranging from 28 to 1186%.

The transition from explicit to presumed consent was associated with a significant increase in liver donation rates in all countries that met our criteria, while the effect on kidney donation rates was partially realized. Although presumed consent alone is unlikely to explain the increase in donation rates, the adoption of such a policy may prove to be a worthwhile risk for countries experiencing consistently low organ donation rates.