Transplantation Proceedings
Volume 36, Issue 5 , Pages 1425-1428, June 2004

Three patterns of voluntary consent in the case of adult-to-adult living related liver transplantation in Japan☆

  • M Fujita

      Affiliations

    • Biomedical Ethics, School of Public Health (M.F., B.T.S.), Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan
    • ,
  • B.T Slingsby

      Affiliations

    • Biomedical Ethics, School of Public Health (M.F., B.T.S.), Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan
    • ,
  • A Akabayashi

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biomedical Ethics, School of Health Science and Nursing (A.A.), University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress reprint requests to Akira Akabayashi, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Biomedical Ethics, School of Health Science and Nursing, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

Abstract 

To elucidate the psychosocial aspects of the donors' decisions to engage in adult-to-adult living related liver transplantation, we interviewed a total of five institutional ethics committee members who had experience with reassessing informed consent prior to surgery. Qualitative analysis revealed several nuances of voluntary consent consisting of three patterns: “unconditional consent” is consent from the bottom of one's heart to save a family member's life; “pressured consent” describes a donor who feels implicit pressure to donate despite fear; and “ulterior-motivated consent” defines a donor who has a hidden motive. This study diverges from previous work in that it employs a qualitative approach to deconstructing the psychosocial intricacies of the informed consent process in adult-to-adult LRLT. This initial study raises several questions on the meaning of voluntary informed consent in adult-to-adult living related liver transplantation.

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☆ This research is supported by a grant-in-aid by the Ministry of Education, Culture Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (no. 15590456).

PII: S0041-1345(04)00520-2

doi:10.1016/j.transproceed.2004.04.088

Transplantation Proceedings
Volume 36, Issue 5 , Pages 1425-1428, June 2004

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