Six-year-old Joe suffered a severe head injury in a car accident and was admitted to the Paediatric ICU. Several days later, doctors confirm brain death and offer Joe’s parents the option of organ donation. His mother says no, and his father says yes.
Now what happens?
There are complexities in family consent and hospital authorisation for post-mortem organ donation. In Australia, each state and territory governs organ donation under local Acts. These laws set out the hierarchy of who can provide consent and outline procedures for authorising donation. Paediatric organ and tissue donation raises additional complexities.
This presentation will provide an outline of the legal landscape for consent requirements for paediatric post-mortem organ donation in Australia, particularly related to parental disagreement. In relation to making a statement regarding post-mortem organ donation, children cannot make expressions of their wishes that carry legal weight. Further, it is unlikely that children have made these expressions, particularly very young children. It is for parents to decide and provide that consent.
Parents have equal decision-making rights in relation to their child (outside of situations where Court orders exist) and when they disagree with each other. States differ in their legal approaches to disagreement between parents. This raises legal and ethical questions about how decisions should be made, how authority is assigned or prioritised, and how disagreements are resolved.
This presentation will consider how current clinical guidelines deal with this issue, and guide future work examining potential ethical frameworks for clinician and designated officer decision-making models.