[Knowledge of legal aspects of organ donation by live donors. Staff survey at a university hospital center]. / Connaissance des aspects législatifs du don d'organes chez une personne vivante. Enquête auprès du personnel d'un CHU.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Law no. 2004-800 dated August 6, 2004, establishes new legal measures to facilitate live organ donation, in view of the shortage of organs for transplantation. We sought to assess the knowledge of this statute among hospital personnel. METHOD: We sent an e-mail questionnaire to 1015 persons working at Amiens university hospital center. It contained eleven closed questions (yes/no/don't know) about permissible live organ and tissue donation and two questions requesting personal opinions about live donation. We compared responses according to profession and department. RESULTS: Questionnaires were returned by 245 respondents. The questions for which more than 70% provided correct answers concerned the fundamental principles of bioethics (consent revocable at any time, donations by adults, donations between spouses, bone marrow donations by minors). Fewer than half the respondents knew the correct answers about the new legal measures adopted in the statute (extension of the circle of potential donors, possible exceptions for donations by minors and incompetent adults). Knowledge of the law concerning assisted reproduction techniques was much poorer fewer than 30% knew that sperm or oocyte donation requires spousal consent. Three quarters of the respondents have discussed their wishes with their family; 65% would provide a live kidney donation, although some only for a family member. In all 31% have organ donor cards. DISCUSSION: Donations by live donors raise psychological as well as ethical and legal issues. This survey increased the awareness of hospital staff, provided them with information about the relevant law and, we hope, stimulated their thinking about the topic of live donations.