Authors' recommendations: The Committee concludes that there are sound medical-ethical and legal arguments for accepting Eurotransplant's proposal to award 500 points to live donors with end-stage renal failure. Adopting this approach means that donors would qualify for a pre-emptive transplant of a postmortem donor kidney. The Committee is of the opinion that the proposal is reconcilable with national and international legal rules and the principles on which they are based. Consequently, the Organ Donation Act need not be amended in order to adopt the Eurotransplant proposal.The Committee recommends incorporating Eurotransplant's proposal into the current system for allocating postmortem donor kidneys. Upon implementing the extra points scheme, the need for lifelong medical monitoring should once again be brought to the attention of all parties involved in health care provision, especially donors/prospective donors. The Committee also takes the view that further medical follow-up studies of live kidney donors are of crucial importance if the criteria for live kidney donorship continue to be extended, in order to guarantee that living donors retain an equally good life expectancy rate as people who have not donated a kidney.

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.gezondheidsraad.nl/sites/default/files/summary%20201106.pdf

Year Published: 2011

URL for published report: http://www.gezondheidsraad.nl/sites/default/files/201106.pdf

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Netherlands

Organisation Name: Health Council of the Netherlands Gezondheidsraad

Contact Address: Postbus 16052, 2500 BB Den Haag, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 70 340 7520;Fax: +31 70 340 7523

Contact Name: info@gr.nl

Contact Email: info@gr.nl

Copyright: <p>Health Council of the Netherlands (GR)</p>