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2008/25: Do Australia's national guidelines on organ donation give donors sufficient protection?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right: The recent death of a young Australian tourist, who was beaten to death in an incident outside a Greek nightclub, has meant life to others. The Australian's donated organs are now functioning in several recipients. Greece has since seen a rise in the number of potential organ donors because of the generosity of the dead tourist's family. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because YouTube is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows YouTube clips.
What they said...
'Death of the brain stem alone is not death. Diagnosis of death requires evidence of the damage to the other parts of the brain such that all function of the brain is destroyed. I advise families to ask for an image showing loss of blood supply to the brain. They can then be confident that death has occurred'
Associate Professor Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, PhD
'No patients, who would otherwise have survived, die in intensive care because they have consented for organ donation. Every effort is made to ensure that dying and recently deceased patients are cared for with dignity and respect. This is in accordance with national and international guidelines, and is how it should be'
Associate Professor Bill Silvester
The issue at a glance
In July 2008, the Rudd Government announced its intention to spend $136 million in a bid to increase organ donation rates in Australia. It intends to deploy teams of specialist staff in hospital intensive-care units and emergency departments.
More organ-transplant doctors, counsellors and organ-donation co-ordinators will be employed in public and private hospitals to work with dying patients and their families.
Later in 2008, the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS), released its revised Statement on Death and Organ Donation.
In October, 2008, in an article, published in the Journal of Law and Medicine, Associate Professor James Tibballs, wrote that organ donations occurred in a way that clashed with the law. Dr Tibballs claimed that organs were being taken from patients who were not 'dead' in the sense defined under Australia law.
Dr Tibballs notes that Australian law allows organs to be taken from donors when all their brain functions have stopped irreversibly or when irreversible cessation of blood circulation has occurred.
Dr Tibballs argues that clinical guidelines commonly used to diagnose brain death could not prove irreversible cessation of all brain function, and that the concept of brain death introduced into Australian law in 1977 was a 'convenient fiction' that had allowed the development of organ transplantation.
Dr Tibballs' views have met with criticism for a variety of reasons. There are those who dispute his claims. There are others who condemn him for running the risk of reducing Australia's organ donation rate even further.
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