Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

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Wiley, American Journal of Transplantation, 1(14), p. 172-177, 2014

DOI: 10.1111/ajt.12519

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When the Living and the Deceased Cannot Agree on Organ Donation: A Survey of US Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs): A Survey of US OPOs on Implementation of First Person Authorization

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

The legal concept of First Person Authorization (FPA) is based on the principle that a decision by a person with decision-making capacity should be respected even after he or she dies. Although the transplant community largely supports this concept, its implementation has not been universal. We conducted a web-based survey of all 58 OPO executive directors in the U.S. to assess OPOs’ procurement policies and practices in the context of family objections. All 58 respondents (100%) responded to our survey. All OPOs except one have an online donor registration website. Most OPOs (89%) (51 of 57 respondents) estimated that the frequency of family objecting to organ donation in cases of registered donors was < 10%. No OPOs reported the frequency to be higher than 25%. Only 50% (27 of 54) of the OPOs have a written policy on handling family objections. Approximately 80% of the OPOs reported honoring FPA. However, in the past 5 years, 20 OPOs (35%) have not yet participated in organ procurement from a registered deceased donor over family objection. Further research to identify the barriers and possible solutions to implementing FPA is warranted.