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

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

Patients who need a new liver usually face a long wait. Some die before a suitable donor is found. Living liver donation is offered routinely in some countries. Should the United Kingdom follow suit?

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

Liver transplantation has become an accepted form of treatment for patients with end stage liver disease and those with an unacceptable quality of life because of liver disease. Despite government initiatives to increase donor rates and surgical innovations to maximise the use of existing donor livers, the number of donor organs is insufficient to meet the existing demand. Living liver donation has the potential to help mitigate the deficit and is offered routinely in many countries in North America, Asia, and continental Europe. Living liver donation is not routinely available in the United Kingdom, although a few living transplant operations have been done led by Roger Williams and Nigel Heaton.¹ We believe that living liver donation should be available on the NHS, although it should not be adopted without full public debate and agreement because of the risks to donors.

Current practice

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

-->

What is living liver donation?

Risks to the donor

Who might benefit?

Is living donation ethical?

Current UK legislation

Requirements for UK programme

Conclusions

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Role of living liver donation: Requirement for transplantation is high

Roger Williams
BMJ 2003 327: 1287. [Extract] [Full Text]

Role of living liver donation: Surgery violates principles of beneficence and autonomy

Michael Potts
BMJ 2003 327: 1287. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Williams, R. (2003). Role of living liver donation: Requirement for transplantation is high. BMJ 327: 1287-1287 [Full text]  
• Potts, M. (2003). Role of living liver donation: Surgery violates principles of beneficence and autonomy. BMJ 327: 1287-1287 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Cofusing mortality rate

Deborah J Verran
bmj.com, 19 Sep 2003 [Full text]

Operating on healthy people to remove parts of their livers

David W Evans
bmj.com, 19 Sep 2003 [Full text]

Re: Operating on healthy people to remove parts of their livers

Innes Reid
bmj.com, 19 Sep 2003 [Full text]

living liver donation.

manan vasenwala
bmj.com, 19 Sep 2003 [Full text]

Living Liver Donation - Now

Roger S Williams
bmj.com, 23 Sep 2003 [Full text]

Living Donor Transplantation and the Ends of Medicine

Michael Potts
bmj.com, 26 Sep 2003 [Full text]

Error in summary points

jane e. young
bmj.com, 10 Oct 2003 [Full text]

Reply to paper

Nigel Heaton
bmj.com, 21 Nov 2003 [Full text]