Organ transplantation saves lives and, at the same time, raises some of the thorniest ethical questions in all of medicine. Jan Jekielek examines the frameworks that govern transplantation, the safeguards meant to protect both donors and recipients, including verified death, informed consent, and the dead donor rule, and the questions that remain genuinely unresolved. He doesn’t shy away from the harder territory: fairness in allocation, exploitation, trafficking, and procurement practices that deserve more scrutiny than they get.

Learning objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the major ethical frameworks that shape organ transplantation policy and practice, including Hippocratic and utilitarian ethics.
2. Describe core ethical requirements in transplantation, including verified death, informed consent, the dead donor rule, and safeguards against conflicts of interest.
3. Identify major ethical challenges in organ procurement and allocation, including fairness in distribution, exploitation, organ trafficking, and concerns raised by controversial procurement practices.