6th ELPAT Congress: Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial aspects of Transplantation: New Technologies – Evolving Humanities

This Special Issue is closed to spontaneous submissions, and only available for participation by invite.

This special issue presents the top papers and invited contributions that were presented at the 6th ELPAT Congress from 9-11 October 2025 in Seville, Spain, titled: ‘Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial aspects of Transplantation: New Technologies, Evolving Humanities’. This unique congress is the only conference globally that addresses ethical, legal and psychosocial aspects of deceased and living organ transplantation uniting experts from law, medicine and ethics, to anthropology, basic science, economics and public health.

Transplant professionals face complex ethical dilemmas, ambiguities, and decisions in their daily practices. As science advances, these dilemmas evolve rather than disappear. The questions we debated 20 years ago are no longer the same or, they require different answers, as the constants have changed. To this end, this issue covers a range of emerging ‘hot topics’ in transplantation, and provides an abundant source of knowledge and guidance for donation and transplant clinicians, ethicists, lawyers, philosophers, psychologists and other professionals working in the field of donation and transplantation. Topics include xenotransplantation, AI technologies in transplantation, ethics of perfusion techniques, migration, organ trade, pediatric donation and transplantation, medication adherence and many more. Together, these publications represent some of the latest research developments, challenges and innovations in ethical, legal and psychosocial considerations of transplant medicine. This issue is for all multi-disciplinary team members that care for organ donors, donor families and transplant patients and who want to strengthen their knowledge beyond clinical practice.

Article types and fees

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Brief Research Report
• Consensus Report
• Editorial
• Executive Summary
• Forum
• Guidelines
• In Memoriam
• Letter to the Editor
• Meeting Report
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Brief Research Report
• Consensus Report
• Editorial
• Executive Summary
• Forum
• Guidelines
• In Memoriam
• Letter to the Editor
• Meeting Report
• Mini Review
• News and Views
• Original Research
• Point of View
• Position Paper
• Registry Report
• Review
• Special Article
• Statistical Insights
• Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
• Transplant Trial Watch

Keywords: transplantation, ethics, transplant ethics, donation, legal, psychosocial, xenotransplantation, artificial intelligence, AI, perfusion, migration, organ trade, pediatric donation, adherence