Selected Legal Aspects of Donation After Circulatory Death in Poland

Organ transplantation is one of the most critical ethical topics in law and medicine and a matter of debate in various countries. Lack of organs for engraftment to meet the existing demand has resulted in a substantial crisis due to organ shortage and a rise in the critical conditions of certain waitlisted patients, as well as increased mortality of patients while waiting. Organ shortages for transplantation raised the issue of procurement of organs not only from living donors and cadaveric donors after brain death, but also after circulatory death. Renewed interest in donation after circulatory death started in the 1990s, and has been on the rise in recent years, reaching up 40% of donation in some countries. Both legislation on and practice of donation after circulatory death differ significantly throughout the world. Lack of unified guidelines and regulations have challenged the medical, ethical, legal, and transplant communities. Moreover, studies on legal aspects of donation after circulatory death are still lacking. In this review, we present selected legal issues in regulation of donation after circulatory death, and we address the most important legal challenges in this regard with particular attention to category III of donors after circulatory death.