Ethics Consult: Surprise Finding in Organ Donation Match Test

— Who do you tell?

Last Updated June 26, 2020
MedicalToday
An exasperated doctor with his hands up

Welcome to Ethics Consult -- an opportunity to discuss, debate (respectfully), and learn together. We present an ethical dilemma in patient care (hypothetical for this edition); you vote on your decision in the case. Next week, we'll reveal how you all made the call. And stay tuned -- an ethics expert will weigh in next week with an ethical framework to help you learn and prepare.

You are a transplant nephrologist preparing a 60-year-old man for a living donor kidney graft. The man's 30-year-old daughter would like to donate her kidney to her father and gets tested to see if she is an optimal match.

When the results come back, they show the woman is not the man's biological daughter.

See the results and what an ethics expert has to say.

And check out some of our past Ethics Consult cases: Compel Woman to Have C-Section?, Give COVID-19 Vax to Yourself Before Patients?, Walk Out Over Mask Reuse?