Letterbox organ donation plea 'May be illegal'

September 8, 2005

The head of the kidney transplant unit at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital says he would not encourage a family's letterbox plea for an organ donor for their son.

Hundreds of flyers have been dropped into letterboxes across Brisbane appealing for someone to consider befriending the family with the view to donating a kidney.

Kidney Health Australia says the move demonstrates the desperation faced by organ recipients in Australia.

The hospital's Dr David Nicol says the family's letterbox drop may be illegal under transplantation laws and he says there are other ethical dangers of such a practice.

"The other concern we have is that this type of appeal often is attractive to people who are vulnerable for a whole variety of reasons and they often become victims of this process and so there is capacity for some harm being done to otherwise innocent but well meaning people," he said.

Dr Nicol says he can understand the family's actions, but says it is not something medical professionals would support.

"This is a rather unusual request and something that we would not really see or wish to encourage for a number of reasons," he said.

"There are complex ethical issues and although we don't know the precise position it may possibly even be illegal under the Transplantation Anatomy Act."

The peak organ and tissue donation body Australians Donate says it has heard of similar appeals before.

Chairwoman Marcia Coleman says she sympathises with the family's plight because there is a significant shortage of donor organs in Australia.

"Only about 1 per cent of Australians die in circumstances where organ or tissue donation is possible and that is they would need to die in an intensive care unit," she said.

"So if you look at the percentage of people the percentage of Australians who actually die in those circumstances then it does help to explain why there are fewer potential donors than we might otherwise wish."

Copyright © 2005 ABC.

This article posted September 27, 2005.