Living Donor Organ Transplantation in Europe: Re-evaluating its Role

Hard choices confront societies generally as well as clinicians individually in the face of escalating organ supply requirements for transplantation within Europe. Living organ donation is an important supplement to cadaveric sources of supply, at least in the short to medium term. However, all acceptable therapeutic transplantation strategies require a proper legal regulatory framework to facilitate their use and to encompass central ethical principles and standards. Living donor organ transplantation has typically lacked such a framework, creating vagueness and both doubt and scepticism as to its status and practice.