Social work perspectives in organ procurement

The gap between the supply of and demand for organs for transplantation has widened in the past two decades, resulting in low quality of life and increased mortality for people waiting for a transplant. Current strategies for organ procurement are inadequate; therefore, alternative methods have been suggested. In the center of the debate are the required request strategy, which endorses the informed consent principle, and the presumed consent strategy, which assumes but does not require explicit consent from the donor. To date social workers have not been extensively involved in the debate, although organ procurement issues involve social work values such as individual rights, free choice, and self-determination. To become active and influential in the policy of organ procurement, social workers should become familiar with these issues and use crisis intervention techniques with grieving families to help them with the donation decision.