Role of living liver donation in the United Kingdom

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7416.676

BMJ 2003;327:676-679 (20 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7416.676

Education and debate

Role of living liver donation in the United Kingdom

James Neuberger, consultant physician¹, David Price, professor of law²

¹ Liver Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham B15 2TH, ² De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH

Correspondence to: J Neuberger j.m.neuberger@bham.ac.uk

Patients who need a new liver usually face a long wait. Somedie before a suitable donor is found. Living liver donationis offered routinely in some countries. Should the United Kingdomfollow suit?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Liver transplantation has become an accepted form of treatmentfor patients with end stage liver disease and those with anunacceptable quality of life because of liver disease. Despitegovernment initiatives to increase donor rates and surgicalinnovations to maximise the use of existing donor livers, thenumber of donor organs is insufficient to meet the existingdemand. Living liver donation has the potential to help mitigatethe deficit and is offered routinely in many countries in NorthAmerica, Asia, and continental Europe. Living liver donationis not routinely available in the United Kingdom, although afew living transplant operations have been done led by RogerWilliams and Nigel Heaton.¹ We believe that living liver donationshould be available on the NHS, although it should not be adoptedwithout full public debate and agreement because of the risksto donors.

The United Kingdom has no reliable information on requirementsfor . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

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