Ethics of organ donation in patients with brain death and its impact on medical practice

Abstract

Introduction: Organ donation is being carried out worldwide, from patients diagnosed with brain death. Within the accurate diagnosis of brain death, the patient must be subjected to different clinical criteria to accept the donation.

Objective: To identify the main bioethical problems concerning organ donation from patients with brain death and the impact it has on medical practice.

 Method: A longitudinal, non-experimental, qualitative or mixed, inductive-deductive study, using the bibliographic review technique of databases such as PubMED, SCOPUS and SciELO.

Development: The main organs donated by the patients were: lungs, heart, liver and kidneys. From January to December, 2020, 207 successful donations and transplants were carried out from. On the other hand, bioethics is considered in the implementation of bioethical principles, the application of informed consent and in which situations palliative care should or should not be applied, so that health personnel do not fall into therapeutic obstinacy.

Conclusions: In recent years, organ donation has become an important therapeutic measure for the treatment of various diseases; the patient or family who decides to enter the organ donation program must take into account that, to perform this procedure, they must undergo different perspectives, not only at the medical level, but also they must be evaluated by the bases of bioethics and the application of a legal document that supports the will of each participant.

Keywords: brain death, ethics, bioethical principles, organ donation, informed consent