Learning Objectives

This workshop will explore three key contexts in which ethical challenges relating to management of sensitive information may arise for clinicians dealing with prospective living organ donors. Potential conflicts between duties of confidentiality and honesty as well as between the interests of potential donors and transplant recipients will be discussed. Issues relating to potential dishonesty on the part of transplant and donor candidates in the context of organ trafficking, will also be examined, making clear how systems designed to protect the integrity of programs by verifying claimed relationships between donor and recipients may be circumvented to facilitate trafficking. Following three talks addressing different aspects of this common theme, a panel discussion will be held to engage with normative questions such as when it may ethically appropriate to withhold information from some donors or recipients, as well as practical strategies regarding use of alibis to protect unwilling donors and strengthening of systems to detect and prevent trafficking.