Ethical Issues in Donation following Circulatory Death: A Scoping Review Examining Changes over Time from 1993 to 2022.

Background

Ethical frameworks for organ donation following circulatory death (DCD) were established >20 years ago. However, considerable variation exists among these, indicating consensus has not been reached on all issues. Additionally, advances such as cardiac DCD transplants and normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) may have reignited old debates.

Methods

We reviewed the English-language literature addressing ethical issues in DCD from 1993 to 2022, examining changes in frequency with which ethical principles and their sub-themes identified within each, were addressed.

Results

Non-maleficence was the most frequently addressed principle (192 of 199 articles), as well as the most varied, with 9 subthemes (versus 2-4 within each of the other bioethical principles).

Conclusions

There were several changes in the terminology used to refer to DCD over time, and substantial interest in cardiac DCD and NRP in recent publications, arising in 11 and 19 of the 30 publications from 2018 to 2022.