Is Rapid Organ Recovery a Good Idea? An Exploratory Study of the Public’s Knowledge and Attitudes

Abstract

In 2006, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended demonstration projects on uncontrolled donation after cardiac death or rapid organ recovery (ROR). To investigate what the public thinks about key ethical and policy questions associated with ROR, 70 African-American, Caucasian and Latino community members in St. Louis, MO, participated in focus groups and completed surveys, before and after being educated about ROR. Before the focus group, most participants believed mistakenly that they could donate organs following an unexpected cardiac arrest (76%). After the focus group, 84% would want to donate organs after unexpected cardiac arrest; 81% would support organ cooling to enable this. The public generally supported organ cooling without family consent if the individual had joined the donor registry, but were mixed in their opinions about what should be done if they were not on the registry. African-American and Latino participants expressed greater fears than Caucasians that if they consented to organ donation, physicians might do less to save their life; however, support for ROR was not significantly lower in these subgroups. Although this study is exploratory, public support for ROR was present. We recommend that adequate consent processes and safeguards be established to foster trust and support for ROR.