Elsevier

Transplantation Proceedings

Volume 41, Issue 1, January–February 2009, Pages 17-19
Transplantation Proceedings

Organ donation
Ethical Issues of Organ Transplantation in Chinese Community: Perspectives of Health Professionals, Legal Professionals, and Religious Experts in Taiwan and Mainland China

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.transproceed.2008.10.048Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to compare the perspectives of leading ethical issues related to organ transplantation as perceived by health professionals (HP), legal professionals (LP), and religious experts (RE) from Taiwan (TW) and Mainland China (MC).

Materials and Methods

A purposive sample including TW's organ transplant health professionals (OTHP), LP, and RE and MC's HP was obtained in this qualitative research. Data were analyzed by content analysis.

Results

A total of 127 subjects participated in this project (n = 119 in TW, 8 in MC). They were HP (n = 92), RE (n = 25 TW), and LP (n = 10 TW). Seven ethical dilemmas were reported: (1) difficulties in touching the hearts of the public (HP 100%, LP 100%, RE 100%); (2) challenges in helping donors and their families (HP 96%, RE 80%, LP 50%); (3) competence and availability of HP (HP 93%, RE 72%, LP 50%); (4) questionable social farewell (HP 92%, RE 20%, LP 100%); (5) questionable legitimacy of prisoners' motivations (LP 90%, RE 64%, HP 60%); (6) worry about public discrimination (LP 90%, HP 50%, RE 20%); and (7) challenges to families in taking care of the recipients (HP 87%, LP 70%, RE 52%).

Conclusions

To provide holistic care, HP need to invite RE to provide spiritual support for the donors of cadaveric organs, recipients, and their families. Reliable LP can help them to complete the sophisticated legal procedures. With help from this triangulated collaborative team, the value of organ transplantation will be appreciated by the public.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

An explorative qualitative research design was used. A purposive sample including TW's OTHP (including transplant surgeons, nurses, researchers, and social workers), LP, and RE and MC's HP (including surgeons and nurses) was obtained in this qualitative research. TW's subjects received face-to-face interviews, and MC's subjects received telephone interviews due to limited communication opportunities. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis.

Results

A total of 127 subjects participated in this project: 93.7% from TW (n = 119) and 6.3% from MC (n = 8). Seventy-two percent (n = 92) were HP, including 15.7% surgeons (n = 20: TW n = 14, MC n = 6), 37.0% registered nurses (n = 47: TW n = 45, MC n = 2), 7.9% OT coordinating nurses (OTCN; TW n = 10, MC n = 0), 3.9% OT researchers (TW n = 5, MC n = 0), and 7.9% social workers (TW n = 10, MC n = 0). Additionally, 19.7% were RE (TW n = 25, MC n = 0) and 7.9% were LP (TW n = 10, MC n = 0).

The

Discussion

Since 2000, some of Taiwan's medical and nursing OT leaders have started to respond to Western society's call that OTHP pay too much attention to the donors' and recipients' biophysiological health issues and the tangible strategies of organ allocation.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Thus, in-depth ethical dilemmas have not received adequate or systematic investigation; unfortunately, they are often the evidence of competing cultural value systems influencing different public groups' and donor's families'

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