How many organs should one patient receive? The ethics of transplantation in the medical school.

BACKGROUND: Interest in the humanities in the medical school is growing; while several medical schools, mainly of Anglo-Saxon background, have developed dedicated courses, the experience in Italy is limited. METHODS: Since the academic year 2000 to 2001, a discussion of ethical problems was implemented in the nephrology course (fourth year of the Medical School of Torino, Italy; overall 6 years). In 2002 to 2003, a case entitled "Retransplantation of Multiple Organs (Prog Transplant 2002)" was discussed in 2 hours of small-group tutorial teaching: a boy received a renal graft at age 5, failed at age 7 due to recurrent glomerulonephritis, required a heart-kidney graft at age 11, and a second heart-kidney graft at 17. Student opinions were gathered by anonymous semistructured questionnaires at the beginning of the lessons as a basis for discussion. RESULTS: Following the lessons all students returned the questionnaires (n = 104). In the absence of competition for allocation, retransplantation was approved by 76.2%, unacceptable for 1% (22.9% uncertain-blank). With a waiting list of 10 patients, the opinions changed: 32.4% approved transplantation, 6.7% didn't approve it, 60.9% were uncertain. A theoretical categorization into deontological or utilitaristic approaches favored the first (41.9% vs 26.7%), with a high prevalence of blank-uncertain (31.5%); 21.9% of the students would change their opinion was that study head of the Transplant Department. CONCLUSION: Ethical aspects of the medical profession have been discussed with interest by medical school students; the high prevalence of uncertain answers and requests to develop specific tools underline the importance of this educational approach.