Normothermic Regional Perfusion Does Not Hasten Death

Area of Science:

• Transplantation
• Medical Ethics
• Cardiovascular Physiology

Background:

• Organ donation after circulatory death (DCD) faces challenges.
• Normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) is a novel DCD method.
• Ethical objections question if NRP causes donor death.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address ethical objections to normothermic regional perfusion (NRP).
• To compare the ethical permissibility of NRP and normothermic machine perfusion (NMP).
• To argue that NRP does not hasten donor death.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical argument and ethical analysis.
• Comparison of NRP and NMP procedures.
• Examination of circulatory determination of death criteria.

Main Results:

• If NRP is considered homicide, NMP would also be considered homicide.
• Ethical safeguards present in NMP are also present in NRP.
• NRP does not hasten the donor's death.

Conclusions:

• NRP is ethically permissible for organ donation after circulatory death.
• NRP mitigates organ shortage without impermissibly hastening donor death.
• NRP offers comparable ethical standing to NMP in organ transplantation.