Donation of organs for transplant: ethical conflicts in the perception of professionals

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.20123612733

Abstract

Organ transplants began to be successful in the Twentieth century, and became the last therapeutic resource in trying to
preserve life. Thus, organ donation is essential to the promotion of transplants, although this process is traversed by moral
and ethical conflicts. This text aims to discuss the ethical conflicts in the process of organ donation for transplant from the
perspective of the professional nurse who works in searching for organ donors. It is a reflexive text, delineated from the
results of the author’s dissertation and her experience as a nurse in an Organ Searching Organization. Nurses who promote
organ donation for transplant consider that their job is difficult, marked by many conflicts related to the meaning of death
and the meaning of organ donation, due to being with the donor’s family and for taking care of the donor. Being with the
donor’s family is one of the most difficult times in nurses’ opinion, is a complex experience as they experience pain, suffering
and death. Nurses in the execution of their professional role have contact with the pain of family members, recognize
their vulnerability and seek to preserve themselves. The conclusion was that professionals who experience existential and
moral conflicts during the organ donation process need to rethink the meaning of their jobs by means of self-knowledge in
order to know how to deal with the meaning of death, suffering and the pain of loss. Services need to create sharing settings
for professionals and encourage them to look for individual support therapy should they want to.