Can cadaveric organ donation rates be improved?

There are many reasons why potential cadaveric organ donors may fail to become actual donors. These include permission refusal by the next of kin, incorrect assumptions about medical suitability and, occasionally, an excessive workload in the intensive care unit. Some potential donors currently regarded in Australia as "unrealistic" might become actual donors if attitudes were to change towards ventilation of patients with a clearly hopeless prognosis who have expressed a wish to be organ donors. "Required request" legislation ignores the wishes of the potential donor and "presumed consent" laws also present some ethical difficulties, but a suggested "required response" process could ensure that an individual's wishes concerning organ donation would be known and able to be carried out after death. For the present, however, it is clear that operating within existing Australian legislation and abiding by currently accepted codes of practice, we can still find considerable scope for improving cadaveric organ donation rates.