Doctors Restoring Bloodflow in Legally Dead Bodies to Retrieve Donor Organs

Surgeons are using normothermic regional perfusion to pump blood through deceased donors so organs stay viable for transplant. The article says the method could increase the supply of functional organs, but it is also controversial because it raises questions about brain activity and the ethical rule that organs should not be retrieved before death is declared.

Reading notes

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• NRP is the name of the procedure that pumps blood through the bodies of donors already declared dead.
• The technique seeks to keep organs undamaged by preserving the circulation of oxygen-rich blood.
• The text says the method could greatly increase the chance of obtaining functional organs.
• Marty Sellers says that national use of NRP could eliminate deaths on the liver transplant waiting list.
• There is ethical debate because some of the blood could restore some brain activity, even with the brain’s blood vessels blocked.
• Matthew DeCamp says that NRP violates fundamental ethical norms about the determination of death and should not be used.
• A 2022 article points to surgical techniques and drainage of brain vessels to prevent the return of circulation in the brain, but says this is still speculative without direct data.
• The text mentions the dead-donor rule as a widely accepted ethical norm that restricts the removal of organs before the declaration of death.
• Supporters say that NRP does not increase deaths and helps save more lives.
• A letter to the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia states that NRP respects the decision to recover organs in the best possible condition after death and also the decision not to be resuscitated.
• The text says that more than 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a donor organ.