US Organ Donation Policy

To the Editor The Viewpoint on organ donation policy maintained that the US opt-in organ donation system performs among the best in the world. Donors per potential eligible donor were used as evidence despite this metric being criticized for potentially overestimating organ procurement organization (OPO) performance. Organ procurement organizations self-regulate and may be incentivized to modify eligibility of missed cases to meet performance requirements. Also, countries with opt-out programs consider cases when death occurs unexpectedly, often termed uncontrolled donation after circulatory determination of death. Implementing uncontrolled donation after circulatory determination of death increases organ supply but with more attrition. Countries that consider higher-risk candidates have fewer donors per potential eligible donor compared with the United States, which has stricter criteria.
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research