According to the Biomedicine Agency, nearly 80% of French people would be in favor of removal and transplantation, but too few of them let their relatives know.

In 2015, around 6 transplants were reportedly performed in France, while more than 000 patients were still awaiting a donor. 

Before talking about organ donation to relatives, the doctor must take care of the announcement of the death. It is always a difficult step because the person concerned is in a very specific situation, in a state of brain death. Without a machine, she wouldn’t breathe, but loved ones often don’t see her that way. If you touch it, it is hot, the chest rises, urine flows through the urinary catheter, the heartbeat trace is displayed on the screens, the heart is still beating … Hear about organ donation in this context is therefore difficult.

In the legislation, the word “close” appears well and not “person of trust” or “family”. Most of the time, these are the people present at the patient’s bedside in the intensive care unit, but it can happen that these “relatives” do not appear spontaneously, leading to many complications. 

After the announcement of the death by the doctor and the respect of a deadline reserved for the emotions, comes the moment to approach the question of the donation. To agree to talk about organ donation in these difficult times, we must hope that the doctor speaks more of “donation” and not of “removal”, less rewarding and less admissible and that it is imprinted with all humanity and empathy required. Relatives of the deceased must understand that obtaining a transplant will prevent the death of one or more patients on the waiting list … 

To the doctor’s question ” Did you discuss with the deceased the question of organ donation? », Several reactions are possible.

Acceptance or net rejection. The reactions can be clear, one way or the other, which facilitates communication: “Yes, he told me he was in favor. Or “Yes, he told me he didn’t want to.” “

Shock. Sometimes the request is experienced as an aggression or in a totally incongruous way.

Denial. It happens that the relative has not yet become aware of the death and speaks of the suffering of the deceased: “ I want to be left alone. He’s suffered enough, I don’t want him to suffer anymore.

Contradictory answers. Sometimes, relatives do not agree with each other, which leads to a difficult situation for the nursing staff, stuck in the folds of intractable family conflicts.

In theory, the law considers that the absence of any opposition from the deceased – and not from his relatives – validates the debit. In practice, this is difficult to implement: relatives are the spokespersons for a whole set of feelings, and most of them ignore the principle of “presumed consent” (“ let it be clear, we are the ones who decide “). 

In quantitative terms, the kidney is the most valuable resource, followed by the liver, heart, lungs, pancreas and intestines.

Kidney, blood, bone marrow, liver or lung can also be removed from a living being either because the organ is in duplicate and only one is sufficient to live, or because the organ is reconstitutes.