Organ Donation and the Anaesthetist

This chapter explores the policy and practice in UK organ donation and the essential role that anaesthetists, with special focus on theatre anaesthetists, continue to play. Donation after circulatory death (DCD) or non‐heart‐beating organ donation was the original type of deceased organ donation prior to the acceptance of neurological criteria for human death that allowed donation after brain(stem) death (DBD) or heart‐beating organ donation. The Human Tissue Act 2004 covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006 set out the legislative requirements for seeking consent and authorisation to donation, both living and deceased. While the majority of potential organ donors are identified in ICUs, in 2012 14% were identified in the emergency department. When only intra‐abdominal organs are being recovered, the role of the theatre anaesthetist is predominantly logistic. A living donor nephrectomy is morally acceptable when carried out with informed consent, freely given.