EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Transpl. Int.

Intensive Care to Facilitate Organ Donation: Insights From the French Guidelines

  • 1. Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Lariboisiere Hospital, FHU PROMICE, DMU Parabol, INSERM UMR942, MASCOT, Hôpital Lariboisière, Université Paris Cité, APHP Nord, Paris, France, Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Paris, Paris, France

  • 2. Emergency Department, Angers University Hospital, UNIV Angers, Angers, France. République des Savoirs- Lettres, Sciences, Philosophie - USR3608- ED540- ENS-PSL, Paris, France, Angers, France

  • 3. Medical Intensive Care Unit, AP-HP Centre Université Paris Cité, Cochin hospital, France, Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Paris, Paris, France

  • 4. Department of Neurology, Stroke Unit, CHRU-Nancy, Nancy, France, Nancy, France

  • 5. Intensive Care Unit, Hôpital Foch, 92150, Suresnes, France, Suresnes, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Abstract

Intensive care to facilitate organ donation (ICOD) is being discussed internationally without reaching a consensus. The aim of this paper is to share with the community the recently published French ICOD guidelines, focusing on two main ethical issues: the ethical acceptability of antemortem interventions during the ICOD process, and the ethical acceptability of considering controlled donation after circulatory death during the ICOD process. These issues raised by the tension between end-of-life care and the possibility of OD deserve to be addressed as they challenge the consideration of ICOD as a routine part of end-of-life care.

Summary

Keywords

Intensive Care to facilitate Organ Donation, Devastating Brain Injury, Brain death, controlleddonation after circulatory death, antemortem intervention

Received

30 April 2025

Accepted

10 November 2025

Copyright

© 2025 LE DORZE, Armand, CHARPENTIER, Humbertjean and Zuber. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Matthieu LE DORZE, matthieu.ledorze@aphp.fr

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