Living Donors Online Message Board
Living Donation Discussion and News => Living Donation in the News => Topic started by: Clark on July 13, 2011, 04:36:46 PM
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/07/should-hospitals-lower-the-age-limit-for-living-organ-donors.html
Should hospitals lower the age limit for living organ donors?
A teen from Ajax, Ont., has fought the age restrictions for liver donations and won, persuading hospital officials to give a piece of his liver to his mother.
Trey Gregory, 17, convinced the staff at Toronto General Hospital that he wasn't too young to donate.
"I'm alive and my son saved my life," Trey's mother, Patty Gregory, told the Toronto Star.
Patty Gregory was put on the liver transplant waiting list in October 2009, after she was diagnosed with liver disease. Trey, 16 at the time, wanted to donate, but Patty objected, saying she would get another donor.
Her condition got worse and Trey pressed the issue, meeting with surgeons, living donor coordinators, a psychiatrist and social workers. Eventually, he convinced them and the transplant surgery took place in May.
Most living liver donation programs restrict donors to close friends and family members between 18 and 55 years of age.
David Grant, surgical director at Toronto General's multi-organ transplant program, said the hospital will now accept liver donations from people as young as 16.
Should more hospitals follow this example and lower the age restrictions on living organ donors? Why or why not?
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Not until we know a lot more about the lifetime outcome of donors. It is impossible to give informed consent without such information and a minor child is too young to make informed decisions regarding the balancing of risks.